Wolverines lose in Logan
The Utah State men’s basketball team returned to the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum looking to break a two-game losing streak and sophomore Preston Medlin scored 13 points to lead USU over the Utah Valley Wolverines 63-54 on Tuesday.
“Everything certainly wasn’t close to being perfect, but we needed a win badly for our spirits, for our confidence and we got one,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said. “It’s something we can build on and hopefully get better. That’s what we’ll try and do.”
Four straight layups and made free-throws down the stretch secured a much-needed victory for USU.
Sophomore Danny Berger, who had his redshirt pulled and played his first game of the season against Pacific last Saturday, hit two of those layups and finished with 10 points to go with three rebounds and three assists in 18 minutes of play off the bench.
“I think their defense was a little scrambled at times,” Berger said. “We just had open lanes the basket and I just took it strong to the hoop.”
USU led by as much as 15 points late in the first half, but UVU would keep the score close for a majority of the game as the Aggies struggled to hold large leads.
Senior guard Brockeith Pane, who finished the game with nine points, spurred a 9-1 USU run with a strong drive and a layup. Medlin capped the run with one of USU’s five 3-point goals on the night.
“I was pleased with how we came out to start the game,” Morrill said. “We tried really effort and that’s something we’ve been stressing — just to play with some passion and energy.
The Aggies, who have been searching for answers on both ends of the court, used their seventh different starting lineup of the season and the bench players scored 27 points, which is the second-highest output of the season. USU’s bench scored a season-high 31 points against Southern Utah.
“Coach was stressing for us to have energy all week and I felt like we came out and hustled,” Medlin said. “Guys would get on the floor. We were getting good rebounds and they weren’t getting many good offensive rebounds, so I thought it was good.
“Coach was really telling us that we needed a lot of energy coming from the bench, coming from everybody on the floor, and we did that.”
Junior forward Kyisean Reed led all bench scorer with 11 point on 5 of 7 shooting from the field and 1 of 2 shooting from the free-throw line.
“Kyisean, coming off the bench, we need him to play full throttle,” Morrill said. “He kind of plays in spurts right now, but he had a good spurt there. He got some points and rebounds and he gives a little something coming off the bench athletically and energy-wise.”
Reed had a crowd-pleasing alley-oop dunk off a pass from Pane that put the crowd on its feet.
Senior guard, Isiah Williams, who leads the team in scoring with 15 points per outing, led UVU at halftime with 11 points and went on to score 16 to lead the Wolverines. Williams scored five of his 16 points early in the first half to cut the Aggie lead, 11-9.
USU responded with a 13-5 run over a span of six minutes to push its lead to 24-14. Aside from a pair of baskets in the paint, the Aggies hit all jumpers to fuel the run.
Medlin gave USU its largest lead of the game with his second 3-ball of the game at 33-18, but UVU would slowly chip away at the lead one more time with a 18-8.
A jumper from senior guard Kevin Woods, who finished with 10 points, cut USU’s lead, 42-38, but that is as close as the Wolverines would come.
USU finished the night shooting 45.5 percent from 3-point range and 46 percent overall, while holding UVU to 45.5 percent from 3-point distance and 39 percent overall.
“Our defensive effort for the most part was really good,” Morrill said. “We got stymied on offense sometimes. We’ve got to develop more weapons. We’ve got to have guys with more confidence, but our defense our offense was good enough to get a win.”
USU outrebounded UVU, 38-32 and USU’s 16 assists were the second-most this season. The Aggies had a total of 11 assists over two games prior to their matchup against the Wolverines.
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu
UTAH STATE CENTER KYISEAN REED goes for a layup in the 9-point win over the Utah Valley Wolverines. KIMBERLY SHORTS photo