Ag basketball win tenth straight
The Utah State men’s basketball team won its 10th-straight game and improved to 13-1, 5-0 in the Big West Conference, with an 83-57 defeat of Cal State Northridge in the Spectrum Saturday night.
“I was a little concerned that we weren’t going to be ready to play,” Aggie Head Coach Stew Morrill said. “We were up for the magnitude of the Pacific game and I didn’t want our guys to relax.”
The Aggies again dominated the first half, holding CS Northridge to only 30.4 percent shooting from the floor. USU took a commanding 43-19 lead into the second half.
“We came out physical,” said Aggie forward Jason Williams. “We’ve been trying to come out and put teams away in the first half and we’ve been accomplishing our mission.”
The second half of play was far less-lopsided, but USU retained control of the game and kept its intensity high. The Matadors never closed the gap to fewer than 23 points in the second half.
“We’ve got to keep it up, keep our composure and just stay hungry,” Williams said. “The second half has to be our half. We’ve got to play the second half just like the first.”
The Ags saw a return to their early season dominance on the glass during their two-game home stand. USU outrebounded the Matadors 48-28, and has out rebounded their opponents 82-60 in their last two games.
“We’ve slipped in rebounding from earlier in the year,” Morrill said. “It’s nice that we came back and dominated the boards like we did.”
Cardell Butler led the Aggies with 18 points, five rebounds and three assists. Williams also added a career-high 15 points and a career-high six rebounds Saturday night.
“[Williams] is starting to make the progress that we need him to make and it’s exciting,” Morrill said.
For the Matadors, forward Eto Onyenegecha led the way with 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting and four rebounds. Ian Boylan, UCSN’s second-leading scorer Saturday night, added 10 points and five rebounds.
The Matadors were without starters Joseph Frazier and Chris Davis, who were suspended for violation of unspecified team rules. Frazier and Davis are averaging 12 and 11.7 points per game respectively.
Off the bench, Nate Harris finished the night with nine points and seven rebounds.
Harris, who averaged 12 points and seven rebounds over the two-game home stand, was named Co-Big West Conference Player of the Week alongside UC Irvine’s Adam Parada. Senior guard Mark Brown added five points, eight assists and four rebounds for the Ags.
“[Brown] did a very good job of running our team,” Morrill said. “I thought it was one of Mark’s better floor games.”
USU now travels to Cal State Fullerton (5-9, 1-4) on Thursday and UC Riverside (6-7, 3-2) on Saturday. Both games will be televised locally on KJZZ.
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