Turnovers plague Utah State in loss to Fresno
The USU men’s basketball team never led against Fresno State on Saturday.
Sophomore guard Kevin Olekaibe, who struggled greatly in Logan, led the Bulldogs with a game-high 26 points to lead Fresno over USU 60-54 at the SaveMart Center in Fresno, Calif.
“We did enough things to have a chance to win the game going down the stretch, and we couldn’t win it,” said USU head coach Stew Morrill. “It sounds familiar. We can’t make the plays when we need to.”
A 3-pointer from sophomore Danny Berger tied the game at 34-all with 11:04 to play. USU had four more opportunities to tie the game or take the lead, but failed to convert, and instead those possessions were filled with turnovers and forced shots.
“We find a way to shoot ourselves in the foot,” Morrill said. “We’re in every game for the most part. We go on the road and have a chance to win both games, but we can’t make the plays. We had three chances tonight to go ahead, but we would take a bad shot, turn it over or not execute our plays. It’s certainly frustrating.”
Sophomore guard Preston Medlin hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 52-50 with 39 seconds remaining, but the Bulldogs, who finished 13 of 17 from the free-throw line, hit six consecutive free throws to seal the victory.
USU’s (12-12, 4-5 WAC) offense sputtered out of the gates and never recovered. The Aggies finished the night shooting 41 percent from the field and 22 percent from 3-point range.
Fresno began the game on a 10-2 run, and USU didn’t hit its second field goal until seven minutes into the first half.
“We didn’t get ourselves ready to play,” Morrill said of the rough start. “We were out of it out there. We subbed everybody out and try to get some other guys a chance to see if they would move around a little better. There’s no excuse for that, there really isn’t. We made a game of it once we got going. Give Fresno credit, their pressure really bothered us.”
USU struggled with ball control and committed 16 turnovers.
“You look at the stats and say, ‘Boy, you hold them to 39 percent and out-rebound them by 16, you think you can win,'” Morrill said. “But when you turn the ball over — they turned it over three times, that’s all we could cause them to turn over — and we turn it over 16 times in a 60-point game. Credit their pressure, but we can’t have our guards turn it over 11 times.”
A layup from freshman center Jordan Stone cut a scoring drought of four minutes with 13:19 to play, and USU outscored Fresno 14-11 to cut the deficit to 21-16 at halftime.
Senior forward Morgan Grim led USU with 13 points and eight rebounds, and Medlin chipped in 13 points. Senior guard Brockeith Pane was the only other Aggie to finish in double-figure scoring.
Stone and freshman forward Ben Clifford scored Utah State’s only bench points with a field goal each.
The Aggies are now 2-10 on the road but will host five consecutive games at home, where they have been more successful.
“We need to play better when the game is on the line,” Morrill said. “We’re going to have some more games on the line. Hopefully it will help to be at home. We’ve got to step up and have a little better leadership and want to be coached. We need to do the things it takes to win wherever we play.”
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu