Aggie men overrun by UNR at home
LOGAN – Utah State entered their matchup against Nevada having won each of the last four matchups between the two teams. Nevada entered on a six-game losing streak and with four straight losses inside the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
When the final horn sounded on Friday night, neither streak was intact. Nevada, led by Desmond Cambridge Jr. and Grant Sherfield, took down the Aggies on their home court to deliver a devastating blow to USU’s NCAA Tournament hopes.
Cambridge Jr. led the Wolf Pack to an 85-74 victory with 27 points, his second-highest point total of the season. Cambridge Jr. also went five for nine from the 3-point line, accounting for half of Nevada’s 3-point baskets.
“If he gets them off, he’s going to make them. The key there for us was not allowing the attempts,” head coach Ryan Odom said. “He gets nine (threes) up and that’s evidence we’re not working hard enough to keep him off the shots. You can’t give good players that many opportunities.”
Sherfield followed suit with 24 points of his own. For the Aggies, Brandon Horvath had a standout night, scoring a career-high 29 points.
The game was very choppy for the Aggies in the early going. Through their first nine possessions of the game, they racked up five turnovers and one charging foul all while shooting 0 for 4 from the floor. They were scoreless at the first media timeout of the game with 15:47 in the first half.
Despite a slow first half where USU struggled to get open looks, the Aggies led at halftime 37-32. Nevada came out and went on an 8-2 run to start the second half and give themselves a one-point lead. The first several minutes of the second half was very similar to the start of the game.
The Aggies had two turnovers and five missed baskets to allow Nevada to take the lead. The Wolf Pack took over the rest of the second half scoring 53 points and shooting 64% from beyond the arc to pull off a 13-point victory.
“We did not play our best tonight. They came in here and played a lot hungrier and wanted it more than we did,” junior guard Rylan Jones said on the game. “They were playing desperate, and they just outplayed us. We usually try to be the hunger team and they beat us to that tonight.”
Utah State has shot 53% from the floor over their last six games, winning five of them. Tonight, the Aggies shot just 42%. A significant factor to the Aggie’s five-game winning streak and recent success has been the surge of Steven Ashworth and Sean Bairstow. Tonight, the Wolf Pack held the duo of guards to just two points combined.
Bairstow, who missed Tuesday’s game against Wyoming due to a non-COVID illness, got just two shots up during 22 minutes of play.
With tonight’s home loss and 11 losses overall, the Aggies likely find themselves on the outside of the NCAA Tournament ‘bubble’. With five games remaining, including two tough matchups on the road at San Diego State and at Boise State, the Aggies will now shift their focus to preparing for the Mountain West Tournament. The two quad one games next week will be a good indicator of how prepared Utah State is to handle the tournament in a few weeks.
The Aggie’s next matchup will be Tuesday at 8 pm when they travel to take on the San Diego State Aztecs.