Aggies fall to Otters

By: Thomas Sorenson

For the first time since 2007, the Utah State men’s basketball team lost an exhibition game, falling 77-60 to Cal State Monterey Bay in Logan on Saturday night.

The last exhibition loss for USU was an 86-81 loss to EA Sports on Oct. 11, 2007.

“It was just really a flat, emotionless performance,” said head coach Tim Duryea. “Obviously that’s my job — to get the team ready emotionally, physically and mentally.”

Poor shooting and sloppy play doomed the Aggies as they shot 33 percent from the field, 18 percent from 3 and finished with 19 turnovers in the game.

“We settled for quick shots, settled for bad shots and played out of character,” Duryea said. “Just not a good performance at all.”

Utah State struggled through multiple scoring droughts in the game, with three separate droughts of two minutes or more. The Aggies had a four-minute dry spell in the first half that allowed CSMB to turn a four-point lead into a 15-point lead.

“I think a lot of it was we weren’t mentally prepared,” said sophomore forward David Collette. “It’s hard going from last year — you get ranked second to last in the Mountain West, you have something to prove. I think it kind of got to our heads being ranked third this year… We’ve got to play with a chip on our shoulder like we did last year.”

The visitors took a 39-26 lead into the halftime break, shooting 41 percent from the field and holding USU to 21 percent in the initial half. It was a stark difference from the first exhibition game for the Aggies, when they scored 47 first-half points en route to an 87-48 victory against Oklahoma Panhandle State.

“Last year we had a lot of games like this where we just couldn’t getting it together in the first half and we came out in the second half and got it together,” Collette said. “For some reason we just couldn’t get it together the whole game.”

Monterey Bay continued its strong play into the second half, opening up a 48-32 lead with 15:25 remaining. The Aggies battled back, though, as senior guard Chris Smith and sophomore guard Julian Pearre hit back-to-back 3’s in a 10-2 run that brought the Aggies within eight points.

The visitors responded, hitting a jumpshot and then a 3 of their own to take a 55-44 lead with 11 minutes to play.

USU made one final push near the end of the game. A Collette layup and a made shot by senior guard Darius Perkins brought the Aggies within seven points with 2:53 left to play, the closest the team had been since the 14:52 mark of the first half. CSMB senior guard Ryan Nitz scored just eight seconds later and the Otters outscored the Aggies 12-2 to close out the game.

“It’s lack of effort, lack of energy,” Collette said. “They came here ready to play and we weren’t. It’s that simple.”

Collette finished the game 22 points and five rebounds on 8-13 shooting. He was the only USU player to shoot better than 50 percent on the night, a surprising result for a Utah State team that led the Mountain West in field goal percentage a season ago.

The Otters held a lead for the final 39:05, taking a 2-1 lead on a jumpshot by freshman forward Matt Bejsovec just 55 seconds into the game.

The Aggies begin regular season play with a road game against Weber State on Friday at 7 p.m.

— thomas.sorenson@aggiemail.usu.edu
@tomcat340