Utah State’s comeback bid falls short, as Aggies lose to Utah 77-67

After falling behind by as many as 21 points in the first half, the Utah State men’s basketball team clawed back to within four points before ultimately falling short in a 77-67 loss to Utah at Vivint SmartHome Arena in Salt Lake City.

“Poor start on our part. I thought we were not aggressive at all,” head coach Tim Duryea said. “(Utah) got off to a great start, executed, and knocked down everything they looked at… and I thought we were kind of waiting around to see how good they were.”

Junior DeAngelo Isby led the Aggies with 24 points on 8-14 shooting, including 11 first-half points, while also grabbing a team-leading eight rebounds. Fellow junior Quinn Taylor poured in 20 points in the first half on the strength of four 3-pointers, finishing the game with 22 points and six rebounds.

Utah State started at the game struggling on both ends of the floor. Meanwhile, Utah took advantage, opening up the game on a 19-2 run and stretching the lead to as large as 21 during the first half. The Aggies crawled their way back into the contest on the backs of Taylor and Isby, who combined for 31 of USU’s 36 points before the break.

“Taylor and Isby really saved our bacon. Our starters really had nothing going,” Duryea said, “and they really stepped up. They were tremendous… and gave us a fighting chance to even be competitive in the second half.”

USU’s two leading scorers entering the game, sophomores Sam Merrill and Koby McEwen, combined for only six points on 2-14 shooting, with two rebounds and five assists. McEwen fouled out of the game without registering a single point.

“In a game like this, our team can’t afford an awful performance from him,” Duryea said of McEwen’s game. “We need him to play a lot better than that, obviously.”

Without the usual contributions from McEwen and Merrill, the Aggies struggled to completely close the gap in the second half. USU climbed to as close as four points, but was ultimately unable to make enough plays to complete the comeback.

“We did battle… and we had the looks and just missed them,” Duryea said. If we can make those, the momentum’s really turned.”

Utah shot 59.3 percent from the field during the first half, along with 50 percent from behind the arc, ultimately creating too much separation for USU to overcome. Justin Bibbins and David Collette each had 16 points for the Utes.

“It’s really hard to play from behind,” Taylor said, “but everyone stuck in there. We made it a game and got it to a winnable situation. We just had some empty positions in the second half… and they capitalized on the other end.”

With only two games left before the beginning of Mountain West play, the Aggies are still figuring out how to maximize the talent on the roster, but running out of time to do so.

“We have a fairly new group of guys, so we are all learning in the process as it goes,” Isby said. “Our record speaks for that at 5-6.”

Despite the issues which have plagued the team’s season thus far, the team seems focused on pushing through them.

“Proud of our guys for fighting,” Taylor said. “It would have been really easy to come out down by 20 and just give up. We kept fighting and kept trying and that’s what we’re going to do all season.”

Utah State’s next opportunity will come next Saturday at home versus Life Pacific of the NAIA. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 pm.