Comeback effort falls short as USU falls at NCAAs
On a day full of upsets, the 12-seeded Utah State couldn’t find the same magic to pull an upset over the No. 5-seeded Kansas State Wildcats in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
K-state senior guard Jacob Pullen, who was playing one day after falling ill with food poisoning, scored 22 points and dished out five assists to lead the Wildcats over the Aggies 73-68 at the McKale Center in Tuscon, Ariz.
“I didn’t think he was affected,” Aggie head coach Stew Morrill said. “He’s a really special player, holy smokes. He’s got a great feel for the game. He makes plays for his teammates. He’s just special. He got by us some because he is so quick. He can do it all. He can make plays, he can shoot it, he’s smart; a good a guard as we’ve seen all season.”
The Aggies dug themselves a big hole with a rough first half and, despite never giving up, were never able to dig themselves out. The long, athletic Wildcats gave the Aggie offense fits for a stretch during the first half that would prove to be the deciding point of the game.
“We were expecting that,” senior forward Tai Wesley said of the Wildcats’ physicality. “They were a big strong physical team, and we knew we had our hands full coming in. We just wanted to match their physicality and play harder than them, and we were able to do that most of the game.”
The Aggies (30-4) got off to a slow start, but they were able to hold Kansas State at bay for the first ten minutes. The Aggies even held a small lead early on when senior forward Pooh Williams hit a 3-pointer to give Aggies their only lead of the game at 5-4 with 16:13 to play in the first half.
From there the Aggies struggle greatly to score and Pullen would hit a jumper to spark 14-3 run that pushed the Wildcat advantage to 29-17.
“We just had a really tough stretch against Kansas State in the first half where we just didn’t function very well,” Morrill said. “They took us out of what we were trying to do with their pressure and athleticism and some of it we were concerned about. Other than about a six or seven minute stretch in that first half, it was a pretty competitive game.”
Wesley only had two points at half to go with three fouls, but he came out firing at the start of the second half as he scored eight of the Aggies first 10 points.
“I started off bad,” Wesley, who finished with a team-high 18 points, said. “I had a couple turnovers and I got my first shot blocked. They were giving me a little bit of trouble in the post. I picked up a couple dumb fouls and I was really frustrated and flustered. The second half was a little different. I came out and wanted to be aggressive and play better, because I didn’t play well.”
Despite the Aggies better play on offense, the Wildcats seemed to have an answer for every Aggie score as they held a double-digit lead during much of the second half.
“It was tough,” Williams said. “Anytime you get down against a good team, it’s going to be tough to get back in it and win the game. Our coach kept telling us is that we had to keep fighting.
We’re just a team that’s never going to give up no matter what the situation is, no matter what the score is. We just kept fighting and that’s how we got ourselves back in it.”
Things seemed completely out of reach when the Wildcats were able to hit two crucial free-throws with 5:32 left in the game after junior forward Morgan Grim was whistled for an intentional foul.
“You have such a small margin of error when you are in those situations,” Morrill said. “When you’re playing a team of that caliber and when you’re trying to dig yourselves out of a hole, those things get magnified greatly. It definitely hurt us.”
The Aggies would respond with a 7-3 run to cut the lead to six with 4:20 to play and seemed to have a chance to get back in the game.
“Ever since our freshman year we’ve been in a lot of game where we’ve been down 10, 15 at halftime, and there’s not one point in the game where we think we’re going to lose,” Williams said. “Even if there’s 30 seconds on the clock and we’re down seven or eight points, we still think we’re going to win.”
Morrill said, “I was pretty pleased with how hard our guys played. They never gave in. Even though we were fighting an uphill battle most of the game, never gave in, just kept competing, just kept trying, and that’s what you’ve got to do in those situations. That’s kind of what they’ve been all about; just try to find a way to win.”
-ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu