Historic night for Carroll
For the Utah State men’s basketball team, playing in the Gossner Foods Classic historically has meant winning.
Thursday night the Aggie team not only lived up to winning in this tournament, but senior guard Jaycee Carroll made history as Utah State cruised to a 87-65 win over in-state rival Utah Valley University.
With just under 12 minutes to play and Utah State leading 63-45, Carroll needed just two points to tie Wayne Estes for second place on Utah State’s all-time scoring list with 2,001 points. Just as he did all night long Carroll took a pass from DeUndrae Spraggins and nailed a 3-pointer to put him over the 2,000 career-point mark and pass Estes.
“Carroll’s in great company,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said. “I probably know better than he does how good of company he’s in. I saw Estes get 52 a couple nights before he died. It’s a remarkable accomplishment to pass Wayne Estes.”
Carroll in not so many words agreed.
“That’s neat, it’s a cool thing,” he said.
Carroll now stands alone in second place on the all-time scoring list behind Greg Grant, who played from 1983-86 and finished his career with 2,127 points.
If Carroll continues his pace of 20.9 points per game, he would pass up Grant on January 17th at home against Boise State.
For the game Carroll finished with 32 points on 11-of-16 shooting, including 6-of-9 from beyond the 3-point line.
“When a guy is on a roll we try to keep him on a roll and try to give him some shots,” Morrill said. “His teammates did a really good job of getting him open.”
One of those teammates that Morrill was referencing was senior point guard Kris Clark, who recorded a career high 10 assists and only two turnovers in 21 minutes of play.
As a team Utah State recorded 26 assist and only seven turnovers while shooting 60 percent from the field and 47.8 percent from three.
“Basketball looks easy when you make shots and we made a lot of shots tonight,” Morrill said. “Obviously, we passed the ball pretty dang well and had many assist.”
Utah State jumped out to a early 12-2 lead and never looked back, increasing the lead to 20 at 26-6 with 11:42 left in the first half.
“We came played with a lot of energy and passion tonight. We didn’t have that last time. We weren’t very energized, but tonight we were,” Morrill said. “We came out, started really well and that carried us. We also defended well and made a lot of shots.”
Utah Valley head coach Dick Hunsaker agreed.
“The Aggies came at us right out of the gate tonight,” Hunsaker said.
Junior forward Gary Wilkinson had a solid performance with 16 points, five rebounds, a block and a steal. Wilkinson credited the Aggies’ new starting line up, with freshmen Tai Wesley and Tyler Newbold starting and senior Stephen DuCharme and junior Spraggins coming off the bench to Utah State’s improved play.
“The line-up change has really brought a difference to the way we play,” Wilkinson said. “Tai (Wesley) and Tyler (Newbold) really bring a fresh look to the court when they come out. I think it’s got everyone going and it puts us on the right track.”
For the night Wesley scored 10 points, pulled down four rebounds and recorded six assists. Newbold had five points, four rebounds, and four assists and at parts of the game he was guarding Utah Valley leading scorer Ryan Toolson. The junior scored 19 points on 8-of-19 shooting for the visiting Wolverines.
With the win Utah State now faces Northern Arizona in the Championship game of the Gossner Foods Classic holiday tournament tonight at 8:05.
Utah Valley will play in the consolation game against Furman at 5:30.
-sam.bryner@aggiemail.usu.edu