Men’s basketball defeats pesky Seattle
Behind a strong performance from its lone senior, the Utah State basketball team emerged victorious in its tilt with Seattle University 75-66 Thursday. Forward Kyisean Reed scored a team-high 20 points to lead three Aggies in double-figures in the win.
“We did just barely enough to win tonight,” head coach Stew Morrill said. “We made some big shots when we needed to, we took care of the ball but they really had us out of sorts. Kyisean obviously had a great night. He got some huge offensive rebounds.”
After giving up the first five points of the game, Reed took over for the Aggies with nine straight points as part of a 12-0 run that gave USU a 14-7 lead. The 6-foot-6 California native recorded a team-high 13 points – including two crowd-pleasing dunks – in 12 minutes of play.
“I think I’m faster than any big man I meet so I just beat them down court,” Reed said. “I don’t think anyone really expects it, it just happens.”
Utah State had a plus-5 edge in turnovers and scored 11 points off of 10 Seattle turnovers, but despite controlling the tempo and forcing 10 turnovers, the Aggies were unable to put any daylight between them and the Redhawks.
Behind 15 first half points from DeShaun Sunderhaus, Seattle kept it close and finished the first half the same way it started with a 5-0 run to pull within 34-28 at the intermission.
“He didn’t look like a freshman, holy smokes,” Morrill said of Sunderhaus. “We didn’t have an answer for him. He had half their points at half, and played a great game. That’s a really good young player.”
Sunderhaus finished with a game-high 23 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Redhawks.
The Redhawks continued their run to start the second half, and a layup from Clarence Trent gave Seattle the lead. Dating back to the first half, Utah State went nearly 11 minutes without a field goal during a 14-2 Seattle run before freshman guard Marcel Davis hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 42 with a little more than 11 minutes left.
Davis came up big for the Aggies in the second half with eight points and a timely 3-pointer to push the lead back to five, and USU blew the game open on back-to-back baskets from Reed to put the game out of reach.
“Preston and Spencer hit some big three point shots, Jarred had some good blocks and Kyisean had some good steals so it was just a good team effort,” Davis said.
Utah State sits at 12-1 following the win, 3-0 in WAC play, and will leave for the MWC with a perfect 8-0 record in WAC home openers. The Aggies have won their past 23 conference home openers dating back to 1989.
USU continues its three-game homestand by hosting Idaho and former Aggie assistant coach and Vandal head coach Don Verlin on Saturday, Jan. 5, with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m.
“I hope we never have to play again after this year,” Morrill said. “I hate playing my former assistants. I hate it. It’s just no fun, but now he and Randy Rahe get to be in the same league for a couple years so they can have fun with it.”
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