Aggie basketball rolls into BWC play
Expectations for the Utah State men’s basketball team were high going into the winter break.
The Aggies rounded out their road swing with games at Jackson State and BYU before returning home to host in-state rivals the University of Utah and Weber State, as well as the annual Gossner Foods Classic.
More importantly, though, USU opened Big West Conference play at Cal State Northridge and the University of the Pacific.
And despite their successful 5-3 record over the break, Aggie Head Coach Stew Morrill isn’t ready to say just how good the team is.
“The thing about the Aggies right now is it’s unknown how good we’re going to be,” he said. “I don’t think I know. The players don’t know. The fans don’t know. I think we’re playing hard. I think we’re trying. We’ve won some close games and that’s a credit to our team.”
Jackson State 63, USU 57
Dec. 7 in Jackson, Miss.
The records were complete opposites — Utah State came into the game a perfect 5-0, while Jackson State was a winless 0-5.
On paper, the Aggies held the advantage. The Tigers had lost all of their previous games by a margin of 22.8 points a game.
When it came to game time, though, the Tigers came away with their first victory of the season, a 63-57 defeat of the Aggies.
Jackson State was able to force turnovers and make crucial free throws down the stretch to pull out the win.
Ishmael Joyce scored 17 points for the Tigers, including shooting 8-for-8 from the free-throw line.
Cardell Butler led the Aggies with 12 points, while Toraino Johnson and Mark Brown had 10 points apiece.
Utah State shot a dismal 22.6 percent in the second half, and committed 19 turnovers during the game.
Jackson State held a 31-27 halftime advantage.
Tim Henderson and Cliff Walker each scored 11 points for the Tigers and K.C. Cavette added 10.
BYU 66, USU 56
Dec. 14 in Provo
The debacle at Jackson State gave BYU fans something to shout at the Aggies.
Those sitting in the Cougar student section chanted the name of the Mississippi school in hopes of reminding Utah State of its poor performance only a week earlier.
It wasn’t the BYU fans that led to the Cougar’s 66-56 victory, but a 10-minute lapse in playing by USU.
“We weren’t quite tough enough the last 10 minutes of the game,” Morrill said. “There were some encouraging things about our team, but you’ve got to get tough when the game is on the line and we didn’t.”
The Aggies held a 35-31 halftime advantage, which they had gained by switching to a zone defense that confused BYU.
Cougar Mark Bigelow struggled the most, as he missed six shots in a row.
However, after Travis Hansen made two free throws, putting BYU up 45-44, Bigelow scored 10 straight points, giving BYU the 55-46 lead.
Bigelow and Hansen each scored 13 points for the Cougars as the team extended the nation’s longest home-winning streak to 39 games.
The Aggies were held to 8-of-25 shooting in the second half, and failed to make a three-point bucket for the first time since Jan. 17, 1998.
Prior to the game, Morrill said he was reevaluating the situation of playing time. The result: Junior Cardell Butler received his first start as an Aggie and Chad Evans received a considerable amount of time on the court.
“You know what you’re going to get from Chad,” Morrill said. “He’s going to go out there and he’s going to board the ball. I’m excited about [more time for Evans] because he deserves that.”
Morrill said the idea to change the lineup came after the loss at Jackson State.
It paid off.
Butler led USU with a career-high 14 points and Evans added two points in nine minutes.
Desmond Penigar struggled offensively, scoring 11 points on 3-of-13 shooting from the field and 1-of-6 from the charity stripe.
USU 59, Utah 54
Dec. 17 in Logan
After his dismal performance at BYU, Penigar scored 13 points and pulled down seven rebounds as Utah State defeated the University of Utah 59-54 in the Spectrum.
The victory marked USU’s third straight of Utah, and its fourth win in the last five meetings between the schools.
“We have been really fortunate to win a lot of close games against Utah,” Morrill said. “And this was just another one of them.”
Mark Brown led the Aggies with 15 points.
After falling 11-2 in the first five minutes of the game, the Aggies went on a 17-3 run in the next seven minutes to take a 19-14 lead.
The Utes came within three points of the Aggies twice in the final 30 seconds, but Brown swished four straight free throws to ice the game.
The Aggie bench provided a lift as it scored 21 points. Finding himself comfortable in his new role, Ronnie Ross recorded 8 points, while Spencer Nelson had 7 and Nate Harris added 6.
“The message is play team ball and play team defense. That’s what we did to get this win,” Penigar said. “We played team D the whole game. We talked it up. We worked on it this week in practice.”
Utah State shot 17-of-22 from the charity stripe, while the Utes made only one of six attempts.
USU 66, Weber State 64
Dec. 21 in Logan
The Aggies were not going to suffer the same last-second defeat to Weber State as they did last season in Ogden.
However, after a back-and-forth game, it did come down to the final play to decide the winner.
Penigar led USU with a season-high 29-points, including the winning basket with .05 seconds remaining as the Aggies outlasted the Wildcats 66-64.
Weber State Head Coach Joe Cravens said he wasn’t surprised Penigar was the one with the ball when the game was on the line.
“They went to their go-to guy on the go-to play,” he said.
Penigar wasn’t the only one who had a successful night. Nelson came off the bench adding seven points, three assists, three blocks and a season-high 10 rebounds. Ross contributed a season-high nine points, also off the bench.
Utah State found itself with a 30-26 advantage going into halftime, and extended the lead to 45-38 with 12:21 left in the game before the Wildcats went on a 19-6 run in the following six minutes.
In that stretch Weber State built its biggest lead of 57-51, before Penigar came back to score 10 points of the final 15 points for USU.
Controversy came at the end of the game as Jermaine Boyette bobbled the ball near the Wildcat bench and then passing it to Brad Barton, the player who scored the game-winning basket last year against the Aggies.
The shot clock was not reset from the previous play, though, leading to the confusion, as the game buzzer followed shortly after. Weber State tried to convince the officials to put more time back on the clock, but the request was denied and the game was ruled over as the referees walked up the tunnel.
“The horn went off but the ball was being batted around and they were not going to get a clean shot at the basket,” Morrill said. “To me, that didn’t determine the game.”
Cravens agreed that the final play would not have necessarily made the difference in a Wildcat win. He said his team had numerous changes earlier in the game.
Boyette paced WSU with 16 points, while John Hamilton contributed 15 off the bench.
More importantly than the high scorers for Weber State was the presence of forward Slobodan Ocokoljic.
After being suspended by the NCAA for making long distance phone calls on a Weber State University telephone, Ocokoljic was called to serve in the military in his homeland, Serbia.
He returned to Serbia to fill out a waiver, but upon returning to the United States he was “red-flagged.”
Ocokoljic arrived at the Spectrum a mere 45 minutes before tip-off, and it showed. He shot an embarrassing 0-9 from the field, recorded four personal fouls and four turnovers. He did connect on eight free throws and pulled down six rebounds in his 23 minutes of play.
“I don’t think, obviously, he wasn’t on top of his game,” Cravens said. “But I think you saw that his physical presence will really help us.”
USU 72, Arkansas State 54
Dec. 27 in Logan
Playing in the Gossner Foods Classic has always seemed to bring the best out of Aggie forward Toraino Johnson.
It was no different when Utah State routed Arkansas State University 72-54 in the opening round of the Gossner Classic.
The senior small forward scored a career-high 19 points, hitting a scorching 7-of-9 shots, as USU remained perfect in its annual tournament. Johnson eclipsed his previous career high of 15 points, which he set against Albany in the 2000 Gossner Classic.
“I just let the game come to me,” Johnson said. “Instead of trying to go one-on-one, I was patient and did what I do best: rebounding and working in transition.”
Johnson, who finished the game with six rebounds, wasn’t the only Aggie who crashed the boards, however. The Aggies dominated the glass, out-rebounding the Indians 48-20, including a season-high 13 from Desmond Penigar.
Penigar was also a thorn in ASU’s side on the offensive end as he finished the game with 18 points. Spencer Nelson added 12 points for the Aggies.
“That is as hard as I have seen us pound the boards in awhile,” said USU Head Coach Stew Morrill.
Arkansas State (5-6) was led by junior guard Trevoris Thompson, who scored a team-high 18 points for the Indians.
USU 66, Idaho State 59
Dec. 28 in Logan
It was a familiar foe and result for Utah State in the championship game of the ninth annual Gossner Foods Classic.
Led by Desmond Penigar’s 24 points and 15 rebounds, the Aggies improved to 18-0 in the GFC with a 66-59 victory over Idaho State University.
However, the win didn’t come easy against what Penigar and USU Head Coach Stew Morrill called a “scrappy” ISU team — a team USU has beaten in three of the nine GFC championship games.
“I don’t like playing Idaho State, and I hope I don’t have to play them again because they’re scrappy,” Penigar said. “They’re a good ball club.”
Fortunately for the Aggies, they were scrappy as well, especially on the offensive glass. USU finished the game with 20 offensive rebounds en route to out-boarding the Bengals 50-23.
In addition to Penigar’s career-high 15 rebounds, Spencer Nelson finished the game with a career-high 14 of his own. Penigar and Nelson combined for more rebounds than the entire Bengal team (29-23).
“When you’re playing ugly, if you defend and rebound at least you have a chance [at winning],” Morrill said.
A chance at beating the Bengals was something Nelson relished. The sophomore from Pocatello, Idaho added 14 points in a game he said he had been looking forward to all season.
“This year I was really looking to them coming down, hoping they’d win and we’d win, so we could play them in the championship game,” he said. “I grew up watching the Bengals, so it’s always fun to beat them.”
ISU was led by reserve forward Rashard Kirkland’s season-high 20 points. Utah Valley State College transfer Scott Henry added 15 points for the Bengals.
After the game, Penigar was selected as the tournament MVP, and Nelson and Toraino Johnson were named to the all-tournament team. ISU’s Henry, Missouri-Kansas City’s Michael Watson and Arkansas State’s Trevoris Thompson rounded out the all-tournament team.
USU 59, Cal State Northridge 44
Jan. 2 in Northridge, Calif.
Ever since USU Head Coach Stew Morrill took over the helm of the Aggies’ basketball program, he has stressed the importance of defense and rebounding — especially when playing on the road.
These two principles were evident in Utah State’s 59-44 victory over California State University Northridge on Thursday night in Northridge, Calif. Thursday’s game was the Big West Conference opener for both teams.
“We were able to get the pace of the game how we wanted it,” Morrill said in a radio interview following the game. “They had a heck of a time scoring against us.”
Heading into the game, the Matadors led the Big West in both scoring (81 points per game) and field-goal percentage (.492). It didn’t show on Thursday night.
USU held CSN to season lows in points and field-goal percentage (.301) as the Matadors went a woeful 14-of-46 from the field.
The Aggies also out-rebounded CSN 38-30, in a battle between the BWC’s top two rebounding squads.
One player the Aggies shut down was Ian Boylan, the reigning BWC Freshman of the Year. Boylan, the conference’s fifth-leading scorer (17.4 ppg), finished the game with only one point, and was held scoreless in the second half.
On the offensive side of the ball, junior guard Cardell Butler finished with a career-high 17 points — six of which were on alley-oop dunks.
“This might have been Cardell’s best performance when you look at things,” Morrill said.
Ronnie Ross chipped in a season-high 14 points for the Aggies, 11 of which came in the first half.
After struggling from the free-throw line early in the game, the Aggies were able to hit them when they counted. Clinging to a 43-39 lead with under five minutes left in the game, USU went a perfect 10-for-10 from the line to seal the victory.
Pacific 66, USU 54
Jan. 4 in Stockton, Calif.
A 2-0 conference start was not to be for Utah State as it was defeated by the University of the Pacific 66-54 on Saturday night in Stockton, Calif.
The Aggies were looking to go 2-0 to start conference play for the fourth straight season, but were outplayed by a Tiger team which has won six straight games.
“Pacific’s playing really well right now,” said USU Head Coach Stew Morrill in a radio interview following the game. “They looked like world beaters tonight, and we had no answer.”
In a game eerily similar to USU’s loss to Cal State Fullerton a year ago, the Aggies were never able to get on track offensively against the Tigers.
Utah State shot a season-low 32 percent, and committed 16 turnovers against a physical UOP defense. Pacific finished the game with 16 points off of USU turnovers.
“They out-physicaled us in every aspect of the game,” said Aggie forward Chad Evans. “You definitely have to give credit to Pacific.”
Down 33-24 at the half, USU held the Tigers scoreless for their first six possessions of the second half, but could only muster one basket in that span.
Up 42-32, UOP scored three consecutive baskets, two by Christian Maraker, to take control of the game.
USU would never recover.
“We just didn’t have a lot of juice, a lot of energy, and we certainly didn’t execute,” Morrill said.
Unfortunately for USU, UOP was able to execute as four different Tigers scored in double figures. Maraker paced the Tiger offense with 15 points, while senior guard Demetrius Jackson added 13 points.
Aggie forward Desmond Penigar scored a game-high 16 points, but went just 6-for-15 from the field. Spencer Nelson scored 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Aggies.
— juag@cc.usu.edu and jasonwturner@cc.usu.edu
Aggie Spencer Nelson shoots the ball Dec. 14 at BYU.
Utah State´s Toraino Johnson practices solid defense against Idaho State´s Alvin Brooks during the championship game of the Gossner Foods Classic.
Mike Puzey shoots the ball Dec. 17 against his former team, the University of Utah. (Photos by John Zsiray)