Utah State men’s basketball sinks Titans
The Utah State men’s basketball team extended its winning streak to 11 and improved to 14-1, 6-0 in the Big West, with a 57-49 road victory over Cal State Fullerton Thursday night.
“It’s hard to win basketball games on the road,” USU Head Coach Stew Morrill said. “You’ve just got to hang in there, keep fighting and try to win it down the stretch.”
With the Ags shooting their lowest percentage in nine games (48 percent), the first half was evenly fought – a stark contrast to USU’s last two outings against Pacific and Northridge – and at the midway point the Aggies trailed 32-29.
Second-half play was a see-saw battle that saw six lead changes. With the game clock under five minutes, Fullerton had a one point advantage over USU at 49-48. The Ags finished with a 9-0 run down the stretch to secure the win.
“That was a big win for us,” Aggie guard Chris Huber said. “Things weren’t going as well as we’d like in the first half, but we came out in the second half. Some things happened for us and we pulled it off.”
The Aggies were without junior forward Spencer Nelson, who suffered a broken nose in Tuesday’s practice. Nelson is averaging 11.6 points and a team-high 7.7 rebounds a night. Nelson is expected to fly to California Friday and could possibly see action Saturday night against UC Riverside.
“When something like that happens you can do one of two things – you can let it get you down, or you can let it motivate you to do better,” Huber said. “Everybody just has to step up even more to fill that gap.”
On his 21st birthday, bench man Nate Harris started in lieu of Nelson and came through with a game and career-high 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting and pulled down seven rebounds.
“I told him it was time to be a man – and he was tonight,” Morrill said. “It’s certainly a game he’ll always remember.”
For the Titans, true freshman Bobby Brown led the way with 19 points, including 4-of-8 shooting from behind the three-point line.
“He’s a dangerous player,” Huber said. “He’s very capable of going off and he hit some big shots tonight.”
Fullerton’s Pape Sow, a 6-10 center from Senegal, came into the night averaging 18.7 points and 9.4 rebounds a game. Despite the loss of Nelson, the Ags were able to control the post and held Sow to only seven points.
“I thought Mike Ahmad did a good job defensively on trying to guard Sow and keep him off the block, and we were able to get some good double teams,” Morrill said.
With Harris in the starting line up, the Fullerton held a 6-0 advantage in bench scoring at the half. However, the Aggie bench battled back in the second half by scoring 15 points, including a career-high nine from Huber. John Neil, Ian McVey and Chad Evans each scored two.
“That’s what coach expects of us,” Huber said. “We just want to come in and keep the spark and the energy up.”
With 14 rebounds from Sow, Fullerton edged the Aggies on the glass outrebounding USU 29-24. Mike Ahmad led the Aggies with seven boards.
“[Sow] is very athletic and we worked all week in practice on boxing him out,” Huber said. “Fortunately during crunch time, we were able to get the loose balls and the rebounds.”
“I’m not going to complain,” Morrill said. “It’s a win.”
The Aggies will have Friday off before traveling to UC Riverside to take on the 6-7, 3-2 Highlanders. The game will be televised locally on KJZZ.
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Aggies Nate Harris and Spencer Nelson fight for a rebound against Illinois St. Nov. 29. (Photo by John Zsiray)