GAME NOTES: Butler’s dunks awe crowd
“A whole lot better than Thursday.”
Aggie Cardell Butler’s words described not only Utah State’s win over Long Beach, but also how he played.
After failing to score in USU’s 59-58 loss to Irvine on Thursday, Butler tied his career-high Saturday. The forward hit 6-of-8 shots, many highlight-reel quality, and scored 17 points.
Midway through the first half, Butler electrified the crowd with the first of three dunks. Receiving the ball on the right wing, Butler blew past his defender, drove the ball baseline and went in for the one-handed dunk.
Then, to end the half, Butler scored on a wild play. With time winding down, the Aggies were looking for a shot, but lost the ball. Center Mike Puzey, lying on the floor, grabbed the ball and tossed it up to Butler, who then drained a three from the right wing at the buzzer.
“I didn’t even think I was going to make it,” Butler said. “I just threw it up there. That was a shot I didn’t even think about.”
There was still even more to come in the second half from Butler, though. Barely a minute into play he took an alley-oop pass from forward Spencer Nelson and slammed the ball home. The result was the crowd of 8,129 fans shouting “replay” in hopes of seeing the dunk on the Spectrum’s video screens.
Minutes later, Butler put an exclamation point on his night with a steal and a breakaway dunk for his final two points of the game.
Cleaning the glass
The Aggies hit the boards hard against Long Beach.
For the first time in four games they out-rebounded their opponent and for the first time since playing Santa Barbara on Jan. 11 the margin was double digits.
“The reason we’re leading the league in rebounding is we do this on occasion,” said Aggie Head Coach Stew Morrill. “Let’s be honest, otherwise it’s pretty close night in and night out.”
Utah State is currently the Big West Conference leader in rebounding with a +7.2 margin.
The Aggies finished the night with 45 rebounds, 18 offensive and 27 defensive, to Long Beach’s 25.
“Tonight we came out and really focused on hitting the boards,” Butler said. “It all started with the boards.”
Puzey led all players with 10 rebounds, one short of his career high.
“That’s something we really needed to work on is our rebounds,” Puzey said. “Those past couple of games we just weren’t rebounding like we needed to.
“We had to get back to what wins games and what wins games in college, if you want to win and be successful, is to defend and rebound and I think we took a big step tonight in those two things.”
Quotables
“You have to give credit to Utah State. They had a little chip on their shoulder, I’m sure, from Thursday night and they took it out on us.” –Long Beach Head Coach Larry Reynolds on his team’s loss.
“You’ve got to have some fun playing the game, and I thought our guys had fun tonight,”– USU Head Coach Stew Morrill on his players’ performance.
By the numbers
49 — points by Utah State in the first half, the most since scoring 53 against Southern Oregon on Nov. 22, 1997.
21 — points by game-high scorer Spencer Nelson, also a new career high.
20 — rebounding margin in favor of the Aggies. USU out-rebounded LBSU 45-25.
18 — second-chance points by Utah State. LBSU had eight.
17-2 — USU’s record this season when leading at halftime.
12 — games in which Nelson has scored in double figures.
10 — rebounds by Aggie center Mike Puzey. Nelson grabbed nine boards for USU.
3 — dunks by Aggie forward Cardell Butler.
1 — flagrant foul. Called against 49er Chris Jenkins when he attempted to stop a Toraino Johnson fast break.
0 — lead changes.
Up next
Utah State heads back out on the road Thursday with a match against Cal State Fullerton.
The Titans (5-7, 7-15) are currently in seventh place in the Big West Conference. The Aggies are tied for second with UC Irvine. Both have 9-4 conference record.
The game is the first in the final pair of road games of the season for Utah State. The Aggies also have three home games remaining.
–slbk5@cc.usu.edu