Porter’s clutch three-pointer propels Aggies to road win
“Life on the road, you hang in there and find a way to win. I couldn’t be more proud of our team,” Utah State head coach Craig Smith said Saturday night after his team’s 68-66 win over New Mexico.
The start of the first half was a dominant performance by the Aggies. With 9:51 left in the half, Utah State was able to stretch its lead to 22-8, its largest of the game. But, that’s when the Lobos started their comeback, going on a 14-5 run over the next 6 minutes. Utah State was able to mitigate New Mexico’s comeback somewhat, and held a 36-27 lead going into the half.
“We got off to a really good start. It was important for us to be able to play with a lead,” junior guard Sam Merrill said. “They hit some shots and a lot of credit to them for getting back in that game.”
Merrill led the way for the Aggies in the second half, scoring 14 of his team-high 22 points; the seventh time this season Merrill has eclipsed 20 points. Along with Merrill, redshirt-freshman guard Brock Miller had another efficient performance from beyond the three-point line. Miller went 4-5 from three and scored 16 points overall; his third straight game in double figures.
One of the Aggies’ strengths this season has been their rebounding, coming in at 10th in the nation in rebounds per game. Freshman center Neemias Queta pulled down nine of the Aggies’ 37 rebounds in the first half alone. This also marked the eighteenth game this season Utah State has out-rebounded its opponent.
Despite the Aggies dominance in the opening part of the first half, New Mexico was able to hold off Utah State from making any more runs in the second half and kept the game close all the way until the end.
“They get off to a hot start in the second half, but we responded,” Smith said. “In the first media timeout, we were up by 10. It felt like they kind of out-played us early in the second half and then they start throwing haymakers.”
With 14:07 left in the game, Utah State stretched their lead to 47-37 after a made layup from sophomore forward Justin Bean. From then on, the game turned into the Anthony Mathis show as the Lobos’ senior guard scored all of his sixteen points over the next ten minutes; tying the game at 64 a piece. Unfortunately for Utah State, its star big man Queta was kept off the floor during this run after falling into some foul trouble early in the half.
“This was a similar thing that happened in Houston where we kind of folded, but because of those experiences, we stayed poised,” Merrill said. “Obviously, credit goes to Abel (Porter) and that was big time.”
Over the final four minutes, Utah State held New Mexico to just two points, putting them in position to take the final shot of the game, giving them a chance to win. A controversial backcourt violation by New Mexico gave the ball back to Utah State and with only a one second difference between game clock and shot clock, Utah State held the ball for the final shot, down 66-65 to New Mexico. After working the clock down to under ten seconds, junior guard Sam Merrill made a drive to the basket and was able to find sophomore guard Abel Porter on the wing, who sank a step-back three with only 1.8 seconds left on the clock.
“We wanted to get the ball in Sam’s (Merrill) hands,” Porter said. “I knew I was going to be doubled-off of. They’ve been doing it the whole game. If it came to me, I had to shoot it and I don’t remember anything else to be honest.”
Maybe a little extra motivation contributed to the Aggies’ performance as well, according to Smith.
“We showed our guys the movie Gladiator and we showed that today,” Smith said. “We showed the scene where they come walking up the tunnel and they go out the Coliseum and we have to stay together. It’s the most important thing and if we do that, we have a chance to win at the end.”
With Saturday’s win, Utah State is now 15-5 (5-2 in conference) on the season and has moved up to third place in the Mountain West. The Aggies continue conference play this Wednesday with a home matchup against San Jose State.