Ags can’t run with pack: Basketball team drops second home game of year

An opportunity to climb into first place in the Western Athletic Conference slipped through the Aggies’ fingers Saturday as the Utah State men’s basketball team fell hard to Nevada 75-57 in the Spectrum.

It was the worst loss for USU since a 75-50 beating by UCLA in the second round of the NCAA tournament in 2001 and the worst home loss since falling 60-41 to Utah in 1996.

“That was a good old-fashioned butt kicking,” head coach Stew Morrill said. “That didn’t look like the [USU] team that’s won 19 games.”

The Wolf Pack jumped out to a 23-8 lead and never looked back.

Aggie Jaycee Carroll said USU wasn’t as ready to play as Nevada.

“Everyone wanted to play well and we may have come out tight because of it,” he said. “That’s the second time in a row we let the other team jump on us.”

Aggie Durrall Peterson said the Aggies missed a golden opportunity Saturday.

“You always want to finish at the top of your league and tonight was a good way to put us in a position to finish that way,” he said.

The Aggies were led by Jaycee Carroll’s 17 points, but Nevada’s Marcelus Kemp hit five 3-pointers and scored 26 points and Nick Fazekas scored 23 and grabbed 16 rebounds to pace the Pack.

Nate Harris had nine points and 10 rebounds for USU, but was held to only three-for-12 shooting from the field.

“I thought Nevada dominated every phase of the game,” Morrill said. “We really struggled because they defended us very well.”

Peterson said the Wolf Pack played well under pressure.

“They hit big shots,” Peterson said. “They out-played us. We weren’t the aggressors, they were.”

Chris Huber hit a 3-point shot with 11:07 to play that cut the Aggie deficit to 47-42.

But a defensive breakdown on the other end of the floor allowed Kemp to make a wide-open 3-pointer to push the Nevada lead back to eight points.

“That was a big play,” Morrill said. “They brought the lead back to 10 real quickly after that.”

Carroll said the Wolf Pack had an answer for every USU run.

“We’d get to eight points [down] and them bam! They’d make a run right back,” he said. “They made it tough for us.”

USU shot a season-low 32.4 percent from the field and just 27.3 percent from 3-point range.

“Sometimes jump shots just don’t go your way,” Peterson said. “That’s why you shouldn’t live by your jump shot.”

USU out-rebounded Nevada 39-35, but Morrill said that was a bad sign.

“We out-rebounded them because we missed so many shots,” he said. “Their size bothered us, they’re athleticism bothered us and our reaction was to get frustrated and throw up a bad shot.

“Instead of making a play for a teammate, they tried to make a play for themselves.”

Peterson said even though first place looks like a long shot, USU’s season is not over yet.

“Hopefully, we’ll see [Nevada] again in the conference tournament,” he said.

Saturday’s game was the second of the year that was sold out as 10,270 fans packed the Spectrum.

The Aggies will conclude their regular season next week.

USU will face the Fresno State Bulldogs Thursday and the San Jose State Spartans Saturday. Both games will start at 7 p.m.

-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu

Utah State’s Durrall Peterson drives past Nevada’s Mo Charlo during Saturday’s game at the Spectrum.