Aggie basketball beats up on Adams State Grizzlies
The USU men’s basketball team met its toughest challenge of the season Saturday, even though it was only the second exhibition.
An upstart Division-II Adams State team, that defeated the Utah Utes 61-60 in Salt Lake the night before, pushed the Aggies to the brink. Senior forward Brady Jardine finished with a double-double, to lead the Aggies over the Grizzlies 73-63 at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
“That was good for us,” Jardine said. “We had a decent California team last week. They came in with a lot of pressure, pressuring the ball — had struggling a little bit to get into our sets to start the game off. That’s exactly what we needed to see — exactly where we’re at — to give the new guys a little bit of an idea of what the pressure is going to be like next Friday.”
Jardine finshed the night with 13 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks in 27 minutes of play.
“I”m just playing as hard as I can,” he said. “I feel like I owe that to myself. I owe that to my team, and I’ve been going every day giving all I’ve got at every minute that I’m in. It was good to be able to make some shots and get some boards (to) fall my way today.”
USU never held a large lead in the first half and actually trailed for a majority of it. The Aggies led by six points after a Jardine layup, eight minutes into the half. But Adams State would go on an 8-0 run to take a three-point lead, with 10 minutes to play.
Junior forward Kaimyn Pruitt, who scored a game-high 16 points against the Utes, got a layup and the foul as part of his game-high 18 points, to give Adams State the lead.
“That’s a good D-II team,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said. “You can see how they made it to the NCAA Tournament last year. They beat Utah yesterday. They’ve got a lot of experience back, and they play hard. They are really athletic.”
Utah State also struggled mightily with the Grizzlies’ defensive pressure and committed 17 turnovers on the night, with 11 in the first half.
“I think that was just a little immaturity of our team,” Jardine said of the turnovers. “We haven’t played someone with pressure like that yet. We got wound up a little too quick — got going a little too fast and had some stupid turnovers, obviously. We’ll cut that back. We’ll slow down a little bit as we get some experience under our belt as a team and realize that it’s OK if there is a guy in you’re face.”
USU headed into the locker room with a tied ballgame. After Marqus Richards went 1 of 2 from the free-throw line, USU forward Mitch Bruneel hit a layup with 29 seconds left to knot the score at 29-all.
“We got the guys around and said we’ve got to play better,” Jardine said about halftime. “It was just one of those things. You’ve got to up the tempo, you’ve got to up the intensity, and you’ve got to be able to be ready to play every possession.”
USU started the second half on a 12-2 run and led by as much as 18 points late in the game. Senior guard Brockeith Pane, who finished the game with 12 points and four assists, scored four points as part of that run.
“There are some encouraging things too,” Morrill said. “We’re trying hard. We bounced back, after looking like we couldn’t play basketball in the first half. We bounced back a little bit. Our two veteran guys who play a lot of minutes — Brady and Brockeith — played great in the second half. There are some good things.”
Morgan Grim, who finished with 10 points, was the only other Aggie to score in double figures, and Igor Premasunac was the only Aggie to not score against Adams State.
USU now prepares for in-state rival BYU.
“We’ve got some work to do this week,” Jardine said. “The excitement is definitely there. It’s my last chance to play them. I’m excited as heck for it. Our team is excited. It’s going to be a fun game. We’re going to come out, and we’re going to play as hard as we give everything we got.”
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu