Ag basketball wins, sees improvement in preseason
Nate Harris snagged 11 rebounds and scored 19 points, going 1-1 from behind the 3-point line, for the Aggies who were struggling with their range Friday night in a 63-50 win over EA Sports.
During the first half, Utah State shot 44 percent from the field, despite shooting 0-6 from three point range. After halftime, the Aggies picked up the offense shooting almost 52 percent and making 4-6 three pointers.
“We shot some wild air-balls up there in the first half,” Stew Morrill said. “We settled in and played better in the second half.”
Spencer Nelson and Jason Williams made back-to-back three pointers to give the Aggies a boost after the team missed six straight.
“It’s about time,” Morrill said. “The only thing that concerned me was it was like one air-ball deserved another. It was like we were going to prove we were going to make one of those. In my mind, maybe if you’ve thrown up a couple of air-balls, you better get the ball inside.”
Morrill also said that while Utah State won’t be at the top of the league in three point attempts, the Aggies will shoot a high three point percentage.
“We’re pretty selective,” Morrill said. “We really believe in establishing ourselves inside and we did a better job with Nate [Harris] and Cass [Matheus] in the second half and I thought that was really key for us. Cass got us some baskets early then Nate got going and that helped us but it never hurts to throw in some threes.”
Harris scored 13 of his 19 points in the second half when the Aggies created problems for EA Sports on defense by switiching to a big line-up.
This run, at the beginning of the second half, extended a 24-20 halftime lead to double digits throughout the second half and closed the door on the experienced EA team.
Morrill, who said he was a little worried about the guard play, started David Pak. Pak in his first year at Utah State has shared guard duties with senior Calvin Brown.
“David Pak got more comfortable out there, other than that one UFO [pass] in the first half. He forced this one turnover and I think Calvin created some good shots for people too. Our point guards were seven assists to one turnover; you would take that quite often.”
Jaycee Carroll started at the other guard position, shooting 6-12 scoring 13 points, 11 coming in the first half. Carroll is a true freshman from Evanston Wyo., who Morrill compares to the retired Jazzman Jeff Hornacek because of some of Carroll’s unorthodox shooting techniques.
“He’s running around making mistakes out there, but he is doing some good things,” Morrill said. “I mean he is active and plays hard, can score and sometimes I forget he’s a freshman.
Morrill said he says things to Carroll that he doesn’t understand because he is a freshman, but with experience all that will come.
“You have players through the years. Some their motor doesn’t run, some their motor runs sometimes and others their motor runs every day,” Morrill said. “His motor runs every day and boy you’ve got to love that. “I’ve had him for a month now and he never comes to practice without his motor running and that will get him a lot better. He’ll be a nice player for the Aggies, I think.”
Nelson, who scored 11 points, said he didn’t play a horrible game but it is nice when other people on the team step up and play well to help out the team.
“I was trying to get in the flow but I just didn’t feel like I was in the flow of the game offensively,” Nelson said. “Nate had a great game, David Pak stepped up at the very end and I think Cass played a lot better in this game than he did last time.”
The Aggies start their regular season this week when they compete in the top of the world tournament in Alaska, opening up against Georgia Southern in the first round and will then play either Central Florida or Alaska-Fairbanks in the second round of a three game tournament.
“I’m excited to see what we’ve really got,” Nelson said “I think tonight was a much better indication than the first exhibition game. We’ve got a long ways to go obviously but we did see improvement and that’s encouraging.”
Williams saw his first action of the season playing 18 minutes and scoring seven points.
-kcaustin@cc.usu.edu