In your face
Utah State’s size got the better of Lewis and Clark’s shooting as the Aggies dominated the Division-III Pioneers 102-65 Saturday at the Spectrum.
The tallest player listed for LCC was 6’5”, so Cass Matheus (6’10”), Nate Harris (6’7”), Chaz Spicer (6’7”) and Nate Bendall (6’8”) had a field day in the paint, combining for 58 points and 25 rebounds.
LCC finished with a total of 17 rebounds.
“It was a fun time,” Matheus said. “I always get nervous playing with small guys. I’m afraid they’ll dribble around me real fast. It was a real good game for practice.”
Jaycee Carroll scored 18 points including two dunks, six rebounds and six assists and Durrall Peterson hit four three-point shots to finish with 12 points.
Carroll said he enjoyed playing this game.
“It’s fun running wild,” he said. “I’ve never had two dunks in one game. I only had three last season. It was my kind of game. It reminds me of Evanston High School.”
Morrill said he is glad USU was able to get an easy win.
“This game was good for us,” head coach Stew Morrill said. “We got some guys some time that they wouldn’t have had otherwise.”
The Pioneers were trigger-happy from behind the arc, shooting 41 three-point shots and hitting 17 of them.
“If they get an ounce of daylight, they fire,” Morrill said. “They are odd to play. They shoot threes at all costs and they made a bunch tonight.”
The Pioneers shot 41 percent from three-point range.
Carroll said he was impressed with how well LCC shot the long ball.
“They made lots of long threes,” he said. “That’s a great percentage especially considering how much they shot.”
Middle Tennessee State 60Utah State 59
Nate Harris missed a fall-away jump shot from 15 feet away as time expired and the Utah State men’s basketball team lost 60-59 to Middle Tennessee State in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
The loss was the first of the season for the Aggies.
“There was no excuse for today,” Matheus said. “We were ready to play the game, we just made too many mistakes.”
Jaycee Carroll scored 17 points, Harris added 11 points and eight rebounds and Matheus scored 11 points in the second half, but USU turned the ball over 17 times times in the road loss.
“It’s life on the road,” Morrill said. “We turned the ball over too much. You’d think if we hold someone to 35 percent shooting you’d win.”
USU shot 46.8 percent from the field while the Blue Raiders shot just 35.8 percent.
The Blue Raiders took an eight-point lead in the first half with an 11-0 run, but the Aggies rallied to tie the game at the half.
USU briefly took a six-point lead in the second half, but neither team led by more than two in the final 10 minutes of the game.
“We stayed in the game,” Matheus said. “A tie-game is fine on the road. We didn’t know anything about these guys.”
Matheus was forced to sit out all but 17 minutes of the game with foul trouble.
“I’m hurting my team by sitting out,” he said. “I try too hard and get stupid fouls.”
The Aggies were only 11-for-19 from the foul line after shooting 20-for-26 against Oral Roberts on Nov. 19.
USU will play Wednesday in Salt Lake City against the University of Utah. “They have a lot of different weapons,” Morrill said. “They do a good job of running their stuff.”
The Aggies beat the Utes 71-45 last season in Logan.
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu
Utah State’s Cass Matheus dunks the ball during Saturday’s game against Lewis and Clark at the Spectrum. Matheus scored 20 points and the Aggies won 102-65. It was the first time USU scored 100 points or more since 1998.