Men’s Basketball: Ags squeak out first road victory
Twenty-two minutes, six points and three rebounds.
Stats like those won’t exactly fill a stat sheet, but then again, when one of those rebounds and two of those points come with three seconds left and lift one’s team to victory, the rest doesn’t really matter.
The USU men’s basketball team traveled to UC Santa Barbara Monday and escaped the Thunderdome with a narrow victory over the Gauchos, 61-59. Backup forward Matt Formisano rebounded a Gary Wilkinson miss and deposited the ball in the basket.
“I thought Gary was actually going to make it,” Formisano said in a postgame radio interview. “I though he had a good look at it. I was just surprised that I was all by myself when I caught it, so I just put it right in.”
In a physical battle of former Big West foes, the game was rarely pretty, but the Aggies are happy with the win as they move to 2-0 on the season.
USU seemed to take control of the game midway through the first half, using a 12-0 run sparked by a Jaxon Myaer 3-pointer, to take a 10-point lead. The Gauchos rallied back, though, pulling within three before halftime.
Led primarily by their defense, the Aggies headed into the break holding a 30-27 lead.
“I thought we did a pretty good job on both their premier players,” said USU head coach Stew Morrill said, “If you can hold them to bad percentages, you feel pretty good about it.”
Myaer shook off a rocky start to lead the Ags in scoring in the first half. He tallied eight points going 2-of-3 from beyond the arc.
Coming out of the intermission the teams battled back and forth again, with UCSB taking the lead momentarily at 39-38. USU mounted another run and looked to be in control with a 12-point lead with 7:30 to play.
However, with the help of a raucous student section, and a few of the Aggies’ season high 22 turnovers, the Gauchos mounted a comeback. UCSB chipped away at the Aggie lead and was able pull within six by the time Tai Wesley fouled out with just over five minutes to play.
“Our point guards really struggled handling their pressure, they (UCSB) just got into us,” Morrill said. “(Myaer and Jared Quayle) made a lot of good plays to go with the bad plays, which is good, at least their balancing them a little bit.”
Wesley led USU with 12 points on 6-of-6 shooting and pulled down eight rebounds in 24 minutes, but was continually hampered by fouls throughout the game.
With the momentum swiftly swinging to the Gauchos and the lead quickly shrinking, Myaer connected on his most timely basket of the game. With the shot clock running down, the freshman knocked down a long 3-pointer to extend the lead back to nine and righted the ship for the Aggies – at least momentarily.
Clinging to a three-point lead, Quayle missed the front end of a one-and-one situation, but the rebound was corralled by the Aggies and they were able to call a timeout with 45 seconds to play.
The excitement was just beginning, though, as the turnover bug bit again. Under intense pressure the Aggies turned the ball over in the backcourt, and with 11.9 seconds left the Gauchos nailed a 3-pointer to knot the game at 59.
After the Gaucho basket, Morrill called a timeout. On the ensuing inbounds play Wilkinson drove to the post for the winning basket, but UCSB’s 7-foot-2-inch Greg Somogyi had other plans and swatted Wilkinson’s attempt away.
Luckily for the Aggies, the ball fell into the waiting arms of Formisano, who promptly made the biggest basket of his Aggie career.
“That’s huge for us, just to build our confidence and know that we can play,” Formisano said. “We just need to be more consistent and not turn the ball over so much.”
Three seconds remained on the clock for the Gauchos. They were able to get off a decent shot, but sophomore guard Jordan Weiner’s 3-pointer fell short at the buzzer.
“We just kind of hung on, but we’ll take it and feel good about it,” Morrill said. “To turn it over that many times and still be able to win was pretty fortunate.”
The Aggies now have a long break until they return to action at the Spectrum to take on in-state rival Weber State oNov. 25 at 7 p.m.
UCSB’s rowdy crowd
The Gauchos are hosting top-ranked North Carolina in the Thunderdome on Friday.
In an effort to get more students out for the USU game, the school gave out vouchers for the UNC game only to students who attended Monday night’s contest. With the student section filled to capacity, the Thunderdome was as loud as it’s ever been for an Aggie game.
Stavon Williams debut
Stavon Williams indefinite suspension ended Monday when he took the court early in the first half against UCSB. The junior transfer made his presence felt quickly, making a layup on his first possession. He played 14 minutes and had five points on 2-of-7 shooting.
Play of the Game
With Formisano hitting the game-winning shot this was an easy choice. Despite the inexperience of this team, and the 22 turnovers they had on the night, they were able to win their first tough test of the season. The Gauchos went 23-9 last season.
–t.olsen@aggiemail.usu.edu