Aggie hoops falls flat against visiting CSU

Colorado State came into a packed Dee Glen Smith Spectrum Saturday night with just seven eligible players on its roster. With the crowd at its back, the time seemed right for Utah State to correct its course after back-to-back losses.

Instead, a sputtering offense that never really got going and a double-digit hole early in the game cost USU a valuable home win, dropping an ugly one to the Rams 64-56.

“Compliments to Colorado State, they played tremendously hard and tough,” Duryea said. “We played very young, very immature.”

Five minutes into the contest, the Aggies trailed 20-6 with no sense of direction offensively. The disjointed home squad routinely turned the ball over, leading to an early lead the Rams would spend the remainder of the game protecting. The pace of the game, a weapon senior wing Jalen Moored suggested played into the Aggies’ favor against a small Colorado State team, ground to a halt throughout the first half.

“It’s another tough loss,” Moore said. “Frustrating. We got down in a hole in the first half and couldn’t cut it back to single digits until the end.”

While the Rams led wire to wire, the Aggies managed to make things interesting with under seven minutes to play, cutting what was a 13-point lead for much of the contest down to seven. After 30 seconds of lockdown defense, a tough fadeaway jumper from CSU’s Glan Clavell silenced the crowd and virtually killed all momentum, putting the Rams back up by nine.

Utah State finished the game shooting a miserable 3-of-19 from three-point range, missing further opportunities at the foul line (9-17) and turning the ball over 14 times.

The Rams’ Emmanuel Omogbo led all scorers with 20 points on 7-12 shooting, including key free throws down the stretch to keep the Aggies at bay.

“There were loose balls where the ball was right there and instead of picking it up we were trying to run too much,” Duryea said. “There were a lot of young immature plays on both ends, in both halves.”

The Aggies extend their losing skid to three, an especially painful loss with several teams around the Mountain West shifting around in the standings and a packed student section hungry for reasons to support a home team now 2-5 in conference play. 

“We fought hard in the second half to come back,” said veteran guard Shane Rector. “It was too little, too late. From the jump ball we’ve got to come out with that aggressiveness.”