USU ties for first with UCI
Prior to Saturday’s game with the Cal State Northridge Matadors, Utah State Head Coach said the Aggies could only commit 15 turnovers in order to come out victorious.
After the first 20 minutes of play the Aggies had racked up 19 turnovers and quickly saw sole possession of first place in the Big West Conference slip away.
Morrill contributed the turnovers to how the Matadors make their opponents rush the ball.
With the 62-54 loss, Utah State will head to Anaheim for the BWC Tournament with a first-place seed and a share of first place with the University of California Irvine.
The Aggies jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead, but soon found themselves in a 25-5 hole.
“We just buried ourselves in the first 10 minutes of the game,” Morrill said.
Following a trey from the right wing by USU senior guard Tony Brown, the Aggies slowly began to battle back to close the gap to 31-18 after the first half.
Junior guard Ronnie Ross pulled the Aggies within one point, 48-47, after a 15-7 USU run with 5:39 remaining in the game.
“I started knocking down a couple of shots and it made the team feel better,” Ross said.
Even though Ross came out to start the game slow, he came back in the second half. Morrill said Ross looked stunned and just out of the game at the beginning.
Morrill said, “It was anybody’s game, I thought then. As often happens in comebacks, you work so hard to come back that you’re a little gassed. And we were a little gassed.”
The Aggies couldn’t get some stops, went for some shot fakes and made some bad decisions in the press, Morrill said.
Morrill said Utah State did a much better job dealing with the Matadors press in the second half than they did in the first half.
The Matadors were not to be outdone by the USU run, though.
Ian Boylan, who finished the game with 16 points off 5-for-11 shooting, scored six points in a late 10-3 CSN run, sealing the victory.
Matador Markus Carr had 14 points, six steals and seven assists.
Morrill said he was impressed how his team never gave up even though a win looked out of reach.
Junior forward Desmond Penigar and Ross led the Aggies with 12 points apiece, followed by 10 points from Brown.
The Aggies shot a dismal 38.8 percent from the field and finished the game with 25 turnovers.
Even with the loss, Utah State still outrebounded CSN 37-32, including eight from junior forward Toraino Johnson.
The loss was the first time this season Utah State dropped two games in a row.
Ross said he was kind of glad to get the losses out of the way.
“When it’s time to go to the Big West Tournament we can focus on win, win, win,” he said. “It’s kind of like if you win so much games in a row, most people say you’re due for a loss. Now that you’ve got the losses out of the way it’s time to win.”
Despite the two losses in a row, Morrill and Brown were honored with awards from CollegeInsider.com Friday.
Morrill was named as the Big West Conference coach of the year.
After losing four starters and five seniors from last season, a team that finished the year 28-6 with a trip to the NCAA Tournament, Morrill led the Aggies to its fourth regular season Big West title in school history. It was also the second title in the past three season.
Even though Irvine’s Jerry Green was named the Big West’s player of the year, CollegeInsider.com named Brown as the most valuable player in the league to his team.
The player with the most wins as an Aggie in USU history with 92 victories, Brown is currently second on the team and fifth in the BWC in scoring at 15.4 points per game.
Utah State will face the University of Idaho Thursday in the Big West Conference Tournament.
“We need to be upbeat and positive about what we accomplished [this season] and put this tough weekend behind us the best we can,” Morrill said.