Aggie get OT win over Y
Emotion. In the exhibition game against Global Sports there was discussion of lack of it. There was no lack of emotion Saturday in the Spectrum as the Aggies defeated BYU 90-81 in overtime.
Utah State University forward Desmond Penigar scored a career-high 34 points and guard Tony Brown added 20 points and 10 assists.
“I think everybody got their money’s worth tonight,” USU Head Coach Stew Morrill said. “That was a good college basketball game. Holy smokes.”
The victory extended the Aggies home winning streak to 25 and marked the 100th game coached by Stew Morrill, who holds a 75-25 record with USU. The win also halted a three-game losing streak to the Cougars.
For the first time since the 1985-86 season, Utah State defeated both in-state rivals, BYU and the University of Utah, in the same year.
BYU’s Travis Hansen scored a career-high 26 points and Mark Bigelow added 21 before fouling out at the end of regulation.
Eric Nielsen and Daniel Bobik added 14 and 13, respectively, for the Cougars.
The Cougars looked as if they could pull out the victory with seconds remaining in regulation, but a shot by Bobik rimmed out with 0.8 seconds left.
In overtime, BYU took an 80-79 lead off a three-point shot by Hansen, his third of the night, but the Aggies gained momentum and sealed the victory.
USU outscored the Cougars 11-1 in the final three minutes of overtime, including six free throws and two assists by Brown.
The Aggies out-rebounded the Cougars, 35-24.
“In the first half, I had one rebound,” Penigar said. “I had to come back in and step it up. Rebounds are a big part of the game.”
Jeremy Vague and Brennan Ray added to the USU win contributing nine points and six rebounds and six points and five rebounds, respectively.
“Two seniors, you couldn’t write a better script to have those guys answer the bell and play so well,” Morrill said.
Penigar started the Aggies off scoring the first basket just 16 seconds into the game. Following the basket, a group of USU fans threw streamers onto the court, giving the Aggies a technical foul.
Bigelow successfully made the two free shots, followed by a field goal by Eric Nielsen, giving the Cougars a lead they would hold most of the game.
“I was obviously not overly happy about it,” Morrill said of the technical foul. “Their [the crowds] exuberance is something we need and we love, but you don’t want to give points up in a game that you know are going to be that tough.
“But if this many come out, I’ll live with it,” he said.
The 10,270 fans attended Saturday’s game, marking the 25th sellout in Spectrum history, 11 of which have come against BYU.
The Cougars shot 16-for-19 from the free-throw line. The Aggies shot 28-for-30 from the line, something Morrill was pleased with.
“This group’s been shooting pretty good free throws,” he said.
Utah State’s 93.3 free-throw percentage tied for the sixth-best in USU history.
Pulling down a rebound and then making a basket, Chad Evans put the Aggies up 28-27 for the first time since the technical foul with 3:57 left in the first half.
The Cougars immediately answered and pulled ahead to finish the first half up by 3, 34-37.
Shooting 0-for-4 from beyond the arc during the first half, the Aggies came out in the second half 6-for-13. Guard Ronnie Ross made two consecutive three-point goals to start off the second half for USU.
“Ronnie’s three’s were huge,” Morrill said. “He was having fun. This is his first time in this rivalry and he just thought it was a heck of a deal. The crowd and all of the excitement, this is what college basketball is all about.”
When Ross came to USU this year, Morrill explained the BYU rivalry. Being from Louisiana, it was more like “BY-who?” to Ross, Morrill said.
“He didn’t know who BYU was and he admitted that,” Morrill said.
Ross shot 3-for-6 from the field with 11 points on the night.
Vague put the Aggies up 45-43 with 16:58 left in the game but consecutive baskets by Hansen and Bobik put the Cougars up by five, 53-48.
With 10:47 left, Vauge shook the Spectrum with two back to back dunks. Ray had a dunk of his own with 4:50 remaining.
With 57.1 seconds left, Ray fouled Hansen, who made both of his free throws, putting BYU up 75-73.
Twenty seconds later, Ray found the basket from three feet out, tying the game.
“You name it, everyone came in and played a great game,” Brown said.
The Aggies will face Weber State University on Dec. 8 for the final in-state match-up of the season.