No gold for 49ers in Spectrum
Nate Harris led Utah State to an 84-46 victory over Long Beach State Saturday night in front of the largest crowd in the Spectrum since 1983 and the seventh largest in school history.
Harris bested his career-high point total for the third time in the four-game stretch since he stepped into a starting role, recording 26 points. He also pulled down 11 rebounds for his first career double-double.
“It’s nice to have a comfortable win, but you never plan on blasting someone like that,” said Aggie Head Coach Stew Morrill.
With several upsets in the Top 25 last week, Morrill refused to speculate about whether the Aggies would move into the upper echelon of the polls.
“You never know about the polls,” Morrill said. “We can’t control it, so we won’t worry about it. It’d be fun for everybody if it happened, that’s for sure.”
Long Beach State jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first three minutes of the game, but it took the 49ers another 10 minutes to put seven more on the board.
“Our confidence is real high right now as a team,” Harris said. “We’re just doing a great job of executing and having fun playing.”
Late in the first half, Harris took and made a rare three-pointer, putting him at 2-for-2 from behind the arc for the season, then followed with an old-fashioned three-point play. That gave him 18 of his 26 in the first half, and he was just one rebound shy of the double-double at the half.
“Nate Harris was fabulous,” Morrill said. “He’s on a roll, very confident and very comfortable. He’s just got a great knack for the basket, a great calmness about him.”
Saturday’s effort will qualify Harris to be one of the nation’s leaders in field-goal percentage. He is shooting 70 percent on the season, and finished the game with 9-of-12 shooting from the field.
LBSU cut the lead to five late in the first half, but solid free-throw shooting and a Mark Brown three-pointer with four seconds left in the half extended the lead to 12.
The Aggies put the game out of reach early in the second half, improving their 39.2 percent shooting effort in the first half to 58.6 percent in the second.
Morrill brought in the reserves, but the Aggies continued pulling away from LBSU, reaching a lead of as many as 44-points while the 49ers struggled from the field.
USU finished the game with 49.1 percent shooting.
Mark Brown was the only Aggie besides Harris who scored in double figures, with 13 points.
Every starter had at least six and every player on the Utah State bench saw playing time.
The only Aggie who didn’t score in the game was little-used reserve guard Tyler Williams.
LBSU shot 34 percent on the game, 18.8 percent from three-point land. Sophomore guard Louis Darby was the only 49er to break double digits, hitting 3-of-9 from the field and 5-of-5 from the line.
Forward Kevin Houston was the next-highest scorer with seven, and no Long Beach State player had more than three rebounds.
Second-chance opportunities made a difference in the game as Utah State out-rebounded the 49ers 45-20, including a 17-3 margin on the offensive glass.
“When you are playing a team that is as good as Utah State is, you have to do everything well,” said LBSU Head Coach Larry Reynolds. “We let the game kind of drift away from us in the second half.”
The win was the Aggies 14th straight, the second-longest streak in school history behind the 1999-2000 USU team that won 19 in a row.
The Aggies continue their home stand next week with games against Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara to start the second half of conference play.
“Now we’ve got a big target on our back,” Harris said. “Everyone’s going to bring their best against us.”
-royburton@cc.usu.edu