Men’s basketball: Ags escape with victory
The Austin Peay Governors showed a glimpse Tuesday night of why they were picked to win the Ohio Valley Conference.
With a 10-point deficit to the Utah State Aggies in the Spectrum with just over three minutes left in the game, the Governors closed to within three points with under a minute left before falling 71-68.
“Under any circumstances that was a good win for our team,” Aggie Head Coach Stew Morrill said. “That’s an experienced team picked to win their conference with five starters back.”
With the his team up three, Aggie senior guard Kris Clark drove to the basket, but was stripped by Governor senior guard ToddBabbington with 15 seconds remaining.
The Governors brought the ball to their end, but nobody wanted to shoot it. Babbington, who by that time was 2-of-9 on 3-pointers, passed up an opportunity. A shot was eventually put up with three seconds left, but it clanked off the rim and into the hands of Aggie senior guard Jaycee Carroll.
“We haven’t had nearly enough time to work on late-game situations,” Morrill explained. “We took responsibility for that as coaches.”
The Aggies (3-3) shot 65 percent on the night and outrebounded the Governors (1-2) 29-19.
“Holy cow, we looked so much better,” said Carroll, who scored a game-high 20 points. “Some of the things the guys have been dwelling on the past few games, it looks like they put that behind them. You get a little nervous about making mistakes or missing shots and you’re living more in the past than in the present. A lot of good things happened tonight.”
Carroll did not committ any turnovers. Aside from him, three other Aggies scored in double figures.
Junior center Gary Wilkinson tallied 19 points and five rebounds. Freshman center Tai Wesley chipped in 12 points on 4-of-4 shooting, and senior center Stephen DuCharme chipped in 10 points.
The closest the Governors ever came to USU was early in the first half when Babbington nailed a 3-pointer to cut the Aggie lead to 9-8.
From there the Aggies went on a 16-3 run to take a 25-11 advantage. Wilkinson was a major part of that Aggie offensive burst, scoring eight points on short jumpers. Carroll and Wesley were the other contributors.
The Governors came within four of the Aggies midway into the second half on a jumper from junior forward Drake Reed.
Again, the Aggies responded in a fiery way offensively.
Wilkinson made a basket, was fouled, and converted thee free throw. Trapped in the far corner by two defenders, Wilkinson then found Wesley for an easy layup to stretch the lead to nine.
Carroll then scored an easy bucket, followed by another from Wesley to cap off the drive and give USU a 13-point edge.
“We kept telling them to free up and go play,” Morrill said of his team. “We’ve got a good group and they’re trying really hard. Sometimes you can try too hard. It’s like standing over a golf shot, (saying) ‘By golly I’m gonna hit this good,’ and you don’t. You have to relax and play a little bit. I’m encouraged we found a way to win that basketball game.”
TAKING ON THE SEC’s VANDERBILT
The Aggies leave early Wednesday morning to begin a 12-hour flight to play the final two games of the South Padre Island Invitational.
Next up is Vanderbilt of the SEC, a team that qualified for the Sweet 16 of the 2007 NCAA Tournament. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:05 p.m.
In response to the question of how the Aggies will carry over the energy they had in front of 7,900 Spectrum fans Tuesday night, Morrill held up his hand and crossed his fingers.
“If I knew that I’d be writing books and making a lot of money,” Morrill quipped. “That’s a tough question. I’ve asked a lot of veteran coaches what you do to peak your team at the end of the season. That’s the response I’ve gotten a lot of times.”
-samuel.hislop@aggiemail.usu.edu