‘Soft’ game gets win
Soft.
That was how Aggie head coach Stew Morrill described USU’s performance against the UC Irvine Anteaters Tuesday night at the Spectrum.
Despite the poor effort, the Aggies walked away with a 12-point victory, 74-62.
With the win the Aggies remained undefeated on the season heading into their toughest test to this season – a battle with instate rival BYU at EnergySolutions Arena on Saturday.
“We were very fortunate to win that game – we offered little resistance defensively,” Morrill said. “It was mistake, after mistake, after mistake. We had a couple of guys save the bacon. Deremy Geiger off the bench and Tyler Newbold had a huge night.”
Geiger used the extended playing time he saw to showcase his coming out party. He went 6-of-8 from the floor, including 2-of-2 from 3-point range, and finished with 14 points in 17 minutes of action.
“I think every game I gain more confidence, and this game right here helped me gain a lot of confidence coming out and playing well,” Geiger said. “I just tried to go out there and pick my times when to attack and other times just to get other people involved and just help the team overall.”
Ten of Geiger’s 14 points came in the first half, and helped the Aggies hang around despite another sluggish start. The Anteaters could not miss from 3-point land early on, and held a 17-10 lead five minutes into the game.
From that point on the Ags battled back, but the game went back and forth. Heading into the intermission, things were tied at 36, and the Anteaters looked nothing like the team that had lost at Idaho 101-47 just five days prior.
“They definitely had a game plan,” Newbold said. “If you look at the history and the past few times they’ve come here, they’ve come to play. They love to play here and for the crowd. It’s always going to be tough. Guys come in thinking we are just going to roll over them by showing up because they’re 0-5.”
A big part of the Anteaters’ success was their game plan. Senior Gary Wilkinson was instantly double and triple teamed, and sophomore Tai Wesley didn’t have it much easier. At the half, Wilkinson had zero points for the first time this season.
Wilkinson finished with eight points and six rebounds, the first time he’s been held out of double-figures in 12 games.
“I thought Irvine came in with a great game plan, doubling our posts and seeing how we responded, and we didn’t respond very well,” Morrill said.
Like so many of their games so far, though, the Aggies did respond in the second half. USU opened the half with a 12-4 run, and though UCI stayed close, the Aggies never relinquished the lead.
With the win the Aggies improved the nation’s seventh-longest home winning streak to 21 games. It was also USU’s 57th-straight home victory over non-conference opponents, which is second in the nation only to Duke.
Despite the win, Morrill was very displeased with his team’s performance after the game.
“It shows how soft we were that we got to the line seven times,” Morrill said. “That’s not us. I mean, we usually get to the line. They out-physicaled us and we were just a soft, soft, soft basketball team. I used to call teams that and they responded. I hope this one does.”
The Aggies will have to respond quickly if they wish to remain unbeaten when they take on the Cougars. BYU is currently undefeated as well, and will remain that way with a win at Weber State Wednesday.
“We better get better in a hurry, obviously,” Morrill said. “We go out and play like that and it will be a long night in the EnergySolutions Arena.”
Newbold’s Big Night
On a night when low-post scoring was hard to come by, the sophomore guard stepped up and had his biggest night of the season, dropping in 21 points and pulling down seven boards. Newbold shot 73 percent from the floor, including 3-of-4 with 3-pointers.
Newbold’s play helped spark the Aggies and save them from what could have been an embarrassing loss at home to a winless team. The Payson, Utah native will look to continue his hot shooting against the team from Provo.
Play of the Game
This week’s play of the game goes to senior Gary Wilkinson. Though the big man didn’t have his usual ease in finding the basket, he still delivered when he got there. With less than a minute left, the Aggies found themselves trying to break a stout UCI full-court press. USU was able to pass the ball out and find a wide-open streaking Wilkinson, who promptly exclamated the win with a one-handed jam.
–t.olsen@aggiemail.usu.edu