Aggies down Cowboys on Day 1 in Vegas
The Utah State men’s basketball team held off a second-half run by the Cowboys as the Aggies defeated Wyoming, 88-70, in the first round of the Mountain West tournament in Las Vegas.
“I really saw no signs of panic whatsoever,” said coach Tim Duryea. “We had talked about it, there’s going to be a run. You can almost count on that.”
With senior guard Chris Smith facing foul trouble and Wyoming closing within single digits, the onus fell on junior wing Jalen Moore to carry the Aggie offense. He responded, scoring six points and registering two assists as USU reclaimed a double-digit lead.
“I was just trying to take the team over and hit the shots we needed to,” Moore said. “I just couldn’t let our team lose this game. We’ve been in too many games like this where we had the lead and at the end we ended up losing. I couldn’t let that happen again.”
Wyoming chipped away at the lead, however, eventually closing the lead to seven points.
Having blown an 18-point first half lead in a home loss to Fresno State on Friday, it seemed that the matchup against Wyoming would be just another game in which the Aggies squandered an impressive first half.
“We knew we had games that we should win,” Moore said. “This game was kind of turning out the same way.”
Moore’s response stabilized the Aggies and they made free throws down the stretch to close out the victory.
Duryea made a change to the starting lineup prior to the game, giving the nod to junior guard Shane Rector in an effort to corral Wyoming senior guard Josh Adams, the Mountain West’s leading scorer.
“I just thought athletically Shane Rector, on our team, had the best and maybe the only chance to matchup up quickness-wise with Josh,” Duryea said. “He is so hard to handle in the open floor and Shane Rector has tremendous quickness.”
The decision paid off in a big way as Rector scored a career-high 24 points while holding Adams well below his season average with 18 points on 4 of 17 shooting.
“I thought Rector changed the game,” said Wyoming head coach Larry Shyatt. “His shot-making changed the game, I thought.”
Rector matched a career-high with three made 3-point shots and shot 7 of 15 from the floor. He also added two assists and six rebounds and made a number of free throws down the stretch to close out the Cowboys.
“I mean, who doesn’t want to start?” Rector said. “I knew it was going to be on me a little bit more to get the game started … I was being aggressive, just like Coach told me.”
Utah State claimed the first-half lead behind an emphatic 20-3 run, sparked primarily by sophomore guard Julion Pearre. He checked into the game with the Aggies holding to a narrow 13-9 lead and proceeded to score or assist on the next 14 points for USU.
“When Julion plays well, we almost always win or we are in a position to win,” Duryea said. “I don’t really know a reason why, other than he does give us some scoring pop off the bench. When he gets off to a good start that to me is one of the best signs I can see.”
Pearre started 4 of 4 shooting, coming off a screen for a 3-point shot, slicing through the lane for a layup and finishing a fast break with another layup and then pulling up in the middle of the lane for another jump shot.
“I just thought the ball movement was so good early on in the game that guys had easy looks,” Duryea said. “They just jumped up and knocked the down and it got a little contagious … The floodgates open and everybody thinks they can make one.”
The Aggies scored 47 points in the first half, the second-most they’ve scored in the opening period this season.
Utah State opened the game with consecutive 3-pointers by Smith and Moore, respectively, then a post-move layup by Smith on the ensuing possession to claim an early 8-0 lead.
“(The coaches) told us all year long we were better than what our record said,” said Rector, who made his first-career start in the game. “Coming in we were really confident and we knew what we had to do to get the win and I think we did that tonight. We got off to a strong start and didn’t really let up.”
As a team, the Aggies shot 58 percent from deep in the first half and finished the game 11 of 25 from 3-point range.
“We were making the extra pass, making the right play,” Moore said. “We’re capable of being a really good shooting team and our stats say that, too … Our 3-point shooting is deadly when we drive and kick and people are knocking them down.”
On the other side of the floor, USU held Wyoming to only five made 3’s and 37 percent shooting from the floor. The Cowboys made a school-record 20 3-pointers in the teams’ lone matchup earlier this season.
“You’ve got two pretty good 3-point shooting teams,” Shyatt said. “One was unconscious in Laramie (in the first matchup), and not so unconscious today.”
The Aggies battled through foul trouble for much of the game as Smith sat for a portion of the second half with three fouls. Six of the eight Aggies who got time on the floor finished with three or more fouls. The Cowboys took advantage, shooting 20 free throws in the second half, and were in the bonus for the final 13:32 of the game.
“We’ve got to be able to move our feet,” Moore said. “We knew having a lead they were going to be aggressive, try to get to the free throw line and get some points with the clock stopped. So it’s not on the refs, it’s on us. We’ve just got to play better defense, not foul people and put them at the line.”
Moore played all 40 minutes against Wyoming and finished the game with 19 points, nine rebounds and five assists. Smith scored 20 points on 7 of 12 shooting, including 4 of 6 from deep, and added four assists. Pearre finished with 14 points, five rebounds, four assists and a steal.
The next game for the Aggies will be against No. 1 San Diego State on Thursday at 1 p.m. Mountain time.
– thomas.sorenson@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @tomcat340