Must-see Aggies
During a month when most students were unwrapping presents, building snowmen and spending time with families, Utah State athletes were winning games, winning awards and continuing their seasons with the hope of gaining spots in various post-season tournaments. What can a student who was busy baking cookies at home do to relive the exciting moments that were seen in Aggie athletics during the Winter Break? Read on, as The Utah Statesman revisits the top 10 things most students missed during the break.
1. Aggies defeat BYU Two days before Christmas, the BYU Cougars visited the Spectrum to take on the Aggies. The favored Cougar team with NBA prospect Rafael Araujo was welcomed to the Spectrum by a packed house of fans wearing USU blue. The Aggies got off to a fast start against the Cougars, using intense defense and multiple alley-oop dunks to get the crowd into the game and shut the Cougars out of it. Araujo was held to just four points in the first half and BYU went into the locker room down 51-25. The second half of the game, however, was an entirely different story. BYU came out of the break firing on all cylinders and it was all the Aggies could do to keep up. BYU played almost perfect basketball for all but five seconds of the second half. The Cougars tied the game at 74 in the final minute, but a Spencer Nelson lay up over Mike Hall in the game’s final seconds put the Aggies on top. After BYU tossed in the inbounds pass following Nelson’s score, the Cougars threw up a long shot hoping for a miracle. The shot was no good, and the Aggie faithful stormed the court in celebration. Confusion ensued for Utah State and its fans, however, as officials reviewed the sequence on television monitors. The officials said BYU called time out after the Nelson basket and added 1.2 seconds to the clock. BYU’s Luis Lemes threw the ball the length of the court, hoping to catch Araujo for a quick shot at the basket. Nelson intercepted the pass, causing the Cougars’ only turnover of the half and sealing the win for the Aggies. “I’m not sure I’ve ever been involved in one like that,” Utah State Head Coach Stew Morrill said. “We ended up two ahead and got ourselves a nice Christmas present.” 2. Cartwright awarded Another Aggie found herself receiving a nice Christmas present during the break. The American Volleyball Coaches Association named senior volleyball player Erin Cartwright an Honorable Mention All-American. Cartwright also received her second-straight selection to the all-Big West Conference first team. This season, Cartwright finished fifth in the Big West in points per game with 5.45 per contest, seventh in kills (4.45), and eighth in hitting percentage and blocks per game. 3. Lady Aggies win On Tuesday, Dec. 13, the Utah State women’s basketball team experienced something that hadn’t been experienced by a women’s team at USU in more than 17 years: They won a game. And even though the game was an exhibition against Utah Valley State College and doesn’t count in the standings, don’t try telling the players it doesn’t count. “This is awesome, we’ve been waiting so long. We deserved it I think, more than anybody,” Christina Zdenek said. “We’re going to keep getting them because we’re going to get addicted to the feeling.” The 75-68 win proved to the Lady Aggies that they could compete and win games. “It was so much fun, especially the last two minutes,” Brittany Hagen said. “The lead kept building, it was just awesome.”
4. Football gets recruits
Head Coach Mick Dennehy announced the addition of six mid-year players to the Utah State football team on Dec. 18. Dennehy announced the signing of the six players who will begin playing for USU in 2004. Two offensive linemen, a wide receiver, tight end, outside linebacker and a cornerback made up the six junior college players signed by USU. “Our biggest needs were on the offensive side of the ball and we feel like we really helped ourselves on the interior with [Brent] DeLadurantey and [Justin] Schlimgen,” Dennehy said in a press release. “With us graduating our center and both guards we needed to bring some guys in, and both of these guys are big, physical players that will help us immediately.” DeLadurantey is a 6-foot-3, 320-pound center from Cerritos Junior College. He will have three years of eligibility to play at USU. Dennehy also signed D.J. Brookter, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound linebacker from Fresno Community College. Brookter played at Utah State as a freshman in 2001 before returning home for personal reasons, according to a press release. During his one year at USU, Brookter played in eight games and recorded nine tackles. As a sophomore at Fresno CC, he started 11 games and recorded 64 tackles.
5. Gossner streak continues
The Utah State men’s basketball team maintained their flawless record during the Gossner Foods Holiday Classic by defeating the San Francisco Dons 74-48 and the New Mexico State Aggies 73-57. Mike Ahmad and Nate Harris were named to the All-Tournament Team and Spencer Nelson was voted as the tournament’s most valuable player after compiling 31 points, 15 rebounds and 14 assists during the two games. The game against New Mexico State saw Ahmad score 20 points for the first time in his career. 6. Hockey loses two
The Utah State hockey club entered the break with two games against Weber State’s Division I team. Both games ended in Utah State losses. The Aggies fell 3-8 to the Wildcats on Dec. 12 at the Eccles Ice Center and lost again the next night 2-6 at the Ice Sheet in Ogden. Assistant coach John Eccles said it is good for the hockey team to play high-level competition like Weber’s Division I team. “It really pushes us to really focus on the game plan,” Eccles said. The Aggies were playing without key players such as Aaron Burrell, Jacob Guttormsen and Nick Haase, all were out with injuries, but should be available for the Jan. 10 game at BYU. Eccles spoke highly of the play of goalie Josh Groves in the games. In the Dec. 13 game in Ogden, Groves had 65 shots fired at him and saved 59. “With these guys knowing they can play like that, we’ll be even stronger [when the other players are healthy],” Eccles said. “We are going to go hard, our record should be better than what we are, but we haven’t played well enough to have a better record.” “I think you’ll see a different team [after the break].”
7. Overtime loss to UNC
The Utah State women’s basketball team was 0-4 heading into its Dec. 13 game against the Division II Northern Colorado Golden Bears. The Lady Aggies had the game in hand until the final minutes when they dwindled a five-point lead and let the game slip into overtime. The Golden Bears made 12 three-point shots through the game. Coupled with 28 Aggie turnovers, the Aggies found themselves on the losing end of a heartbreaker, 73-70.
8. Aggies step up
Early in the men’s basketball team’s season, different players have stepped up in different games, helping to carry the Aggies to victory. Perhaps no two players have been as consistent this season in carrying the Aggies as Cardell Butler and Spencer Nelson. Through 10 games, Butler averaged 15 points per game for the Aggies while Nelson turned in 11.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per contest. Butler and Nelson were each top scorers in eight of the first 10 games with Butler scoring 27 at Idaho State and 28 against Idaho. Against New Mexico State, Nelson was one rebound shy of tallying the fourth triple-double in Utah State basketball history.
9. An unkind road
The women’s basketball team left Logan on a four-game holiday road trip on Dec. 19, and after the final game at Idaho on Saturday night, they still had not found a win. The Lady Aggies were defeated by Western Michigan by 51 points, Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne by nine points, 21 points at Weber State and 11 points at Idaho. Following the road trip, the team turns its attention to a Jan. 8 bout with national power UC Santa Barbara.
10. Men get revenge
The men’s basketball team avenged a surprising loss last season to the Jackson State Tigers by defeating the Tigers in Logan 67-42. Cardell Butler scored 19 points and Nate Harris scored a then-career-high 15 in the win. The Aggies lost to the Tigers 57-63 last year. -str@cc.usu.edu