Doubleheader success for both men’s and women’s basketball
Utah State men’s and women’s basketball teams both took the win Monday night in their doubleheader at the Spectrum.
The long night of basketball started at 6 p.m. with the tip-off of the men’s game playing against the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Eyes were on freshman guard Koby McEwen as he came out early with the team’s first basket — the first two of his 18 points on the night. But it wasn’t long before the whole team followed. Not even five minutes into the game, all five starters had rotated off the court and the team was still maintaining its lead.
Although they had nine turnovers in the first half, the Aggies led at the half and continued their momentum through the rest of the game, and only allowed four more turnovers, compared to NJIT’s six in the second half.
In spite of the fact that more than two-thirds of the team is new to this level of basketball, Utah State had five players scoring over eleven points — four of which were freshmen or first-year Division I athletes.
One of those new faces on the team is Sam Merrill, who posted 15 points.
“In the first game I missed a couple wide open shots, so some of the guys were joking with me that I needed to get out of my drought,” Merrill said. “I had a couple good looks and I was able to hit a couple of open threes and that helped us out.”
Thirty-one of the Aggies’ 93 points were scored off the bench, and the team shot an overall 57.7 percent. The Highlanders didn’t see the same point distribution as the Aggies, with one player scoring 34 of their 84 points of the night. They shot an overall 44.4 percent.
“The toughest team won the game,” said McEwen of his team’s 93-84 victory. “That’s what it really came down to was toughness.”
McEwen was second to Jalen Moore in total points, scoring 18 and 19 respectively. Shane Rector led in assists with a total of seven, and the team as a whole finished with 34 rebounds.
The women’s team followed with a match-up against Montana State University around 8:25 p.m.
Defensively, Utah State was ahead for the entire game, however, missed shots added up and the Aggies found themselves trailing at halftime 29-24.
Head coach Jerry Finkbeiner said that may have been due to some “intangibles that will need to be diagnosed” from starting point guard Eliza West.
Along the same line of intangibles, Finkbeiner said two game-changing players were returners Lizzy Klinker and Deja Mason.
Klinker recorded three steals in the game and Mason had four blocks even though she only played in the second half except for one minute of the first.
Finkbeiner said their defense is what turned the game around for the team in the second half, and what allowed the shooters to execute better in that half than they did at the start of the game.
“You get momentum from a defensive stop. Deja’s blocks were in perfect timing,” Klinker said. “And steals are a game changer — they’re the perfect way to get a defensive stop.”
The game was within five points for all but the last four minutes when the Aggies ran with the lead.
Finkbeiner said he expected the game to be that close and that he’s proud to see his team learning how to play Aggie basketball even when it’s deep in the second half.
“It began to take over and the second half was more our flavor,” Finkbeiner said. “I’m really happy with this year’s team because we’re so new to this, so it’s nice to win a first semester game in the last minute or two.”
The final score was 64-56 for Utah State, sophomore Rachel Brewster led the team points (18), freshman Shannon Dufficy led the team in rebounds (14), and Mason led the team in blocks (four).