Demons exorcized

It’s not often that the Utah State men’s basketball team goes into the locker room at half-time down by 13 points. In fact, the last time it happened was nearly 10 years ago when USU lost to Utah.

Obviously that was not an experience the Aggies wanted to repeat Saturday night against Northwestern State in the fourth-annual ESPN BracketBusters tournament.

So they didn’t.

After being down for most of the game – 13 at the half – Utah State battled back and with one minute remaining actually had a lead after two free throws from Chaz Spicer put the Ags up 62-61. On the next two possessions, the teams traded free throws until two from Jaycee Carroll put USU up by one with less than 30 seconds remaining.

Then came the really hard part – at least for the fans.

With only 11 seconds left in the game, Clifton Lee – who was leading NSU with 20 points – was fouled.

But when Lee missed both shots and Carroll made two more free throws with 7 seconds left, Utah State sealed its 66-63 win over Northwestern State.

“What a way to make a living,” head coach Stew Morrill said. “That was really a tale of two halves really. They were so much the aggressor. We showed some courage in the second half we came back and battled and took care of the ball and played like we normally play and got back into it pretty quick.”

In the first half Northwestern State came out strong and made the Aggies look bad, Morrill said. The Demons managed to come out and get an early nine-point lead and forced a lot of turnovers in the first half, something that didn’t show USU basketball at its best.

“We weren’t rattled,” Carroll said. “We didn’t know what to expect, we didn’t listen to our coaches. We didn’t come out and give this team as much respect as we should have. We started playing their game, their defense got to us.”

At the start of the second half, Carroll said the Aggies knew they had to come out and execute.

“If nothing else we needed to come out in the second half and play Aggie basketball and not look like we were inept,” Morrill said.

Something that Carroll and Nate Harris seemed to take to heart.

Harris finished the game with 27 points, 19 of those coming in the second half alone. Morrill said Harris had a great night and USU kept running plays to get the ball to him. Carroll finished the game with 19 points.

“I was very pleased of how we responded after half time. We showed them what we were made of,” Morrill said.

Utah State returns to WAC action Thursday night at Boise State. The game starts at 7:35 p.m. Then the Aggies will return home to host Nevada Saturday at 7:05 p.m. in the Spectrum.

-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu