Aggie men lose to future conference foe in Seattle Redhawks
Sophomore Preston Medlin hit a jumper to give the USU men’s basketball team an early 2-0 lead Thursday night, but it was the only lead the Aggies would enjoy as Seattle responded with a 13-2 run and never trailed the remainder of the night.
Senior forward Aaron Broussard scored 17 points to lead the Redhawks over the Aggies 73-66 Thursday night on Elgin Baylor Court at Key Arena.
“Our defense just wasn’t good enough tonight,” Medlin said. “That’s just not going to win you basketball games, especially when they out-rebound, too. Our defense has just been bad. We’re just giving up too many easy looks, and we’ve got to help each other better.”
Seattle had a hot shooting night from the field, hitting 53 percent overall and 57 percent from the 3-point line.
Broussard went 2 of 4 from the 3-point line, and sophomore guard Sterling Carter, who chipped in 12 points, hit 4 of 7 from 3-point range.
“We had a tough time,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said. “We really had a tough time trying to guard them. Our defense has slipped. It’s frustrating, because we were holding opponents to around 40 percent, and, recently, we haven’t even come close to that. When you give them 53 percent and 57 percent from 3-point range and you get outrebounded by 11, you are going to lose.”
After Broussard hit a 3-point shot midway through the first half to push Seattle’s lead 22-9 — its largest of the game — USU went on an 18-8 run to cut the lead to 30-27.
Aggie senior guard Brockeith Pane, who scored a game-high 20 points, cut the deficit to 30-27 on a 3-point basket.
USU held Seattle close in the opening minutes of the second half, and a pair of free throws from Pane cut the lead 52-49 with 8:06 to play.
Seattle dominated the remainder of the half. Senior guard Cervante Burrell gave Seattle its largest lead of the second half on a pair of free throws, to make it 64-52 with 2:44 to play.
“We would make a run, and then they would just come back and make a run right at us. It was a tough loss tonight,” Medlin said.
USU struggled against Seattle’s zone all night and shot 42.6 percent from the field and 30.4 percent from 3-point range.
Morrill said he was also concerned about Seattle’s press coming into the game, which became a big factor, as USU committed 12 turnovers and never got into any kind of half-court rhythm.
“We struggled against their press,” Morrill said. “I thought that got us out of rhythm a little bit. They pressed us and caused us to turn it over. It’s a tough game when you turn it over too much, and you don’t guard very well, and you can execute on offense. It’s a little bit deceiving that we were within seven.”
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu