Aggies cruise past Tritons, 74-42
The Utah State men’s basketball team cruised to an easy victory over the University of California-San Diego in its first exhibition game Friday.
Brockeith Pane finished with 12 points and three others finished in double-figure scoring as the Aggies defeated the Tritons, 74-42, at the Dee Glenn Smith Spectrum.
For USU head coach Stew Morrill, the exhibition served its purpose.
“In these exhibition games, all you can play is non-DI schools,” Morrill said. “The other thing you can do is scrimmage and not have a crowd. You take your pick there.
“I thought it was good to get everybody some minutes,” Morrill added. “When we get a chance to evaluate the film, we’ll know more. We played hard. We made some mistakes, but I’m glad we played hard.”
USU played solid offensively, shooting 54 percent from the field and 58 percent from the 3-point line. The Aggies shot 7 of 20 from the free-throw line, which is one of the many spots where the Aggies feel they can improve.
“We’ve still got a long way to go,” Pane said. “That wasn’t very good competition. I think we can get better. Six for 20 from the free-throw line is something we can get better at. At halftime we were losing the rebound battle, so that’s something we can get better at, but otherwise I think we played good.”
USU went on an 11-0 run to start the game and never looked back. Preston Medlin hit three of his 10 points as part of that run, and Pane came up with a steal and easy layup.
UC-San Diego was without two of its best players, and despite the victory Morrill had some concerns.
“My biggest concern, we were being out-rebounded at half,” he said. “We barely out-rebounded this team and this is not a WAC team. In our ability to guard, we lost a lot of stoppers, and they got a lot of good looks out of their stuff and didn’t make them.”
Brady Jardine finished the night on 5-of-7 shooting from the field and grabbed seven rebounds, while Adam Thoseby finished with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field and 2-of-3 shooting from the 3-point range.
The Aggies led by as much as 38 points in the second half off a jumper from Medlin, and UC-San Diego head coach Chris Carlson left impressed by the new-look Aggies.
“I know there’s been a lot of talk on Utah State and the newness of the program,” c said, “but I’d hate to have to come play them in January, I can tell you that.
“They did a lot of good things tonight, a lot of good things that we weren’t quite up to the task on, in terms of guarding especially,” he said. “They are a very well-coached group, and they’re going to be fine. Logan, Utah, doesn’t need to worry about the Aggies.”
Defense still remains the main concern, despite USU’s ability to score easily.
“We had a lot of different guys in double-figure points,” Pane said. “Brady is going to play a big role in what we do. We’ve got a lot of people that can score. We’ve got a lot of people that can put the ball in the hole, but that’s not our main focus. We’re going to get wins by getting stops and getting rebounds and running the break.”
In the end, the scrimmage served it’s purpose for Morrill and his team.
“In our scrimmages,” Morrill said, “we’ve been making close to 80 percent, and that tells you a lot of the jitters the new guys have and some of the veterans have, even.”
Questions still remain as to who will get playing time for the Aggies. Morrill rotated 12 players into the lineup against the Tritons, which is something he hasn’t done very often. Last season the Aggies had an eight-man rotation.
“It’s hard when you’re playing 12 guys,” he said. “You’re just running guys in and out. I’ve only done this four or five times in my career. I’ve got so many new guys, I’ve got to get them time and see what they can do.”
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu