This is *not* Sparta — Aggies blow past San Jose State
The Utah State men’s basketball team opened up its game against San Jose State on Tuesday night by going on a 19-0 run.
Things didn’t fare too much better for the Spartans throughout the rest of the game. By the final buzzer, Utah State had even recorded more rebounds (58) than the Spartans did points (56).
The final score was 94-56 in favor of the Aggies.
“We came out ready to play,” senior guard Diogo Brito said. “We came out with a lot of energy, with a lot of aggressiveness — we definitely were the aggressor tonight…that start really carried us for the rest of the game.”
Sophomores Neemias Queta and Justin Bean led the team with both recording double-doubles. Queta led all scorers with 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds with Bean grabbing 13 boards to go with 12.
In total, Utah State had four players score in double digits and every Aggie who saw the floor got on the scoreboard.
“We got great production and great minutes from literally everybody that played,” head coach Craig Smith said. “I don’t know that anybody played poorly.”
In the first 20 minutes, Utah State held its opponent to 17.2 percent on field goals and San Jose State only managed to go 3 of 20 from 3-point range.
Meanwhile, the Aggies shot 50 percent on field goals in the first half and two of its players — Sam Merrill and Queta — individually tied San Jose State’s 14 points at the break.
Even before halftime, Utah State’s student section, The HURD, was chanting “warm up the bus.”
The halftime score was 51-14, and while it looked like the Aggies were going to record the team’s largest margin of victory all season, San Jose State gained some traction in the second half which would keep the Aggies from exceeding its 55 point win over Weber State in November.
ROCHE GROOTFAAM‼️
💪💪 @lifeofche15#AggiesAllTheWay#SCtop10 pic.twitter.com/zBEkj89DNM
— USU Men's Hoops (@USUBasketball) February 26, 2020
Even still, the Spartans were only able to go on one run the entire game, and the team never came close to threatening the Aggies’ lead — a factor which makes this game vastly different from many Utah State games earlier this season.
“We’ve shown this year that sometimes when we get some leads we try to settle down a little bit,” Brito said. “But today we definitely put our foot on the gas for 40 minutes.”
According to senior guard Sam Merrill, the Aggies were able to stay on top of the game largely due to the mindset the players had going into it.
“I think we did the best we could to understand what we’re playing for and not take San Jose State lightly because they’ve been playing some good basketball,” Merrill said.
Utah State finished the game shooting 48.6 percent on field goals and went 10 of 21 from three.
“At the end of the day, it was just an amazing night,” head coach Craig Smith said.
The final game of the Aggies’ regular season will be on Saturday. The Aggies will travel to Albuquerque, New Mexico to take on the University of New Mexico. Game time is scheduled for 8 p.m.