Aggies slam home share of WAC title with win over Bulldogs
After a rare loss to the Idaho Vandals last week, the Aggies were looking to bounce back, and they did it in a big way. Four Aggies finished the evening in double figures and a stingy defense smothered the visiting Fresno State Bulldogs as Utah State cruised to a 71-55 victory in front of a near sell-out crowd Saturday night at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
“The good thing about basketball is that you’ve got games right after a couple of days,” senior guard Brian Green said. “We just wanted to get that out of our system, and really practice hard and come out with some edge and some fire. They (the coaching staff) are really big on not losing two games in a row and we didn’t want to lose two games in a row. I thought we responded well and it was good to get a win.”
Senior forward Nate Bendall led the Aggies with 13 points and eight rebounds in 22 minutes of play, and was a force in the post defensively.
“I thought Nate Bendall was really good,” Aggie head coach Stew Morrill said. “He really practiced well yesterday and it’s nice to see a guy practice well and then play well.”
The Aggies (22-3, 12-1) struggled to get anything going offensively in the first 10 minutes of the first half. The Bulldogs kept things very close, and even took the lead when freshman forward Bracken Funk hit a 3-pointer to give Fresno a 13-12 lead with just under 11 minutes to play. That was the last lead the Bulldogs (11-14, 5-8) would hold, however, as the Aggies turned on the offense and finished the first half on a 28-6 run.
Free-throws from Bendall and junior forward Brady Jardine spurred the run, and the Aggies held the Bulldogs to only one field goal, a lay-up from Funk, for nearly eight minutes. The Bulldogs had many chances to score, however.
“Our bigs early on were not playing with any aggression level whatsoever,” Bulldogs head coach Steve Cleveland said. “When you are one foot from the basket and there is nobody between you and the rim you should score, and we didn’t. We missed out on six or eight points early in the where we could have made a run, but we didn’t.”
Funk led the Bulldogs with 14 points and six rebounds in 30 minutes of play, but sophomore forward Greg Smith, who was the Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year and is leading the team with 11 points per game, finished with two points and three rebounds in 30 minutes of play.
“He’s a good player, so I definitely tried to make an impression on him, and hopefully let him know that nothing is going to come easy,” Bendall said of Smith.
A 3-pointer from freshman James Walker gave the Aggies their biggest lead of the first half at 40-17, and the Aggies’ lead was never threatened the rest of the night.
“We played a really good first half and five minutes of the second half and got ourselves enough cushion to take us home,” Morrill said. “I thought we were executing, we were defending, guys were making shots. The first half was really solid.”
The Aggies shot a blistering 60 percent from the field during the first half, but they got a little complacent during the second half, where they shot 33 percent.
“We had a cushion, we were up by 20 and I think we were just content with being up by 20,” Green said. “Second half we did not play very good; could have played a lot better, but we got the win and that’s what matters.”
Green finished the night with 13 points on 3-of-6 shooting from the floor and 2-of-5 shooting from 3-point range after having not scored in the past two games.
“It was nice to hit some shots and get off that goose egg,” Green said. “I haven’t scored in the last couple of games, but that’s OK. I don’t really care about points as much as winning. I’ve tried to do other things.”
Senior forward Tai Wesley finished with 10 points, eight rebounds and six assists, and senior wing Pooh Williams also finished with 10 points.
The Aggies claimed at least a share of their fourth consecutive WAC title with the victory over the Bulldogs, but they would much rather win the title outright.
“It doesn’t feel like we’ve won it yet,” Morrill said. “A share is good, winning it outright is better. We’ve still got lots of opportunities to win an outright title. Like I told the players, we’ll celebrate when and if we get that done. It’s not time to relax and celebrate.”
The Aggies will step away from WAC play next week as they host the Montana-Western Bulldogs from the NAIA on Wednesday, then travel to Moraga, Calif., to face the St. Mary’s Gaels in the ESPNU Bracketbuster match-up.
Tip-off against the Bulldogs is set for 7 p.m. in the Spectrum on Feb. 16.
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu