Utah State hoopsters some back for win over Mustangs
Utah State basketball Head Coach Stew Morrill has constantly talked about how hard it is to play on Saturday night in the Big West Conference.
This weekend’s road trip was no exception.
After dropping Thursday’s game 62-50 at UC Santa Barbara, one would think the Aggies would come out with an extra sense of urgency.
Wrong.
USU trailed Cal Poly most of the contest, including missing 14 of its first 18 shots, before finally capturing a lead in the final minutes.
The Aggies went on to grab the 64-63 victory, which salvaged a split on the California trip.
With seven games remaining in the regular season, Utah State (17-5 overall, 8-3 in league play) is currently tied for first place in the Big West with the UCSB Guachos.
“We did get frustrated,” Morrill said to the media following the victory. “We just kept
playing.”
But it wasn’t as if the Mustangs didn’t have a chance to nab the win. With 22.6 seconds remaining, Cal Poly’s Shane Schilling rebounded a miss by Aggie Desmond Penigar.
Cal Poly called a timeout to set up what it hoped would be the game-winning basket. Instead, a switch between man-to-man defense and zone on the inbounds pass confused the Mustangs, and a long shot by Schilling on the left side banked off the rim and the rebound by Varnie Dennis was too late.
“We just kept hanging. We weren’t out of it,” Morrill said of the rally late in the game. “We were focused on just trying to play possession-by-possession. I thought our mindset was very good compared to the other night.”
And who took sole responsibility for the loss at Santa Barbara? None other than Penigar, who recorded a career-low two points against the Guachos.
“I think it was my fault,” Penigar said of the loss at UCSB in a radio interview following the CP game. “I didn’t play like I know I should have played. I didn’t play like a senior, like a leader on this team. Because of that, we came out soft and we didn’t compete well.”
As a result, Penigar spent time watching extra game film in preparation for the Mustangs. The plan might have looked as if it backfired as Penigar missed his first four shots from the field, he bounced back to make his next four.
Perhaps the area Penigar helped the Aggies the most against the Mustangs came at the free-throw line. The forward was 10-for-11 from the charity stripe, drawing several fouls inside while driving to the hoop.
Penigar wasn’t the only one who had a successful night. Aggies Spencer Nelson and Toraino Johnson scored 15 and 10 points, respectively.
Aggie Mark Brown finished the night with a game-high seven assists.
Schilling led the Mustang charge with 19 points and eight rebounds. Dennis added 18 points and also pulled down eight boards.
Morrill placed Penigar on Dennis, who responded to the challenge. The Mustang forward had previously scored 20 points in each of the three games prior to the meeting with the Aggies.
In the first half he didn’t do too much, and that’s my doing for the most part,” Penigar said. “He’s a tough guy. He’s a left-handed post and not many posts are left-handed.”
Penigar said because of Dennis’ ability to move left, it kind of threw the Aggies off because they are used to guarding guys who go right.
The Aggies will return home Thursday, hosting UC Irvine in an unusual 6:30 p.m. start to accommodate California television.
–juag@cc.usu.edu