Aggies corral Mustangs
The Utah State men’s basketball team defeated Cal Poly 57-43 Thursday night in the Spectrum to extend its current winning-streak to 15 games and remain undefeated in the Big West Conference.
“It wasn’t necessarily a pretty ball game,” USU Head Coach Stew Morrill said. “But we found a way to win in the last ten minutes and that’s just what this team has done.”
The Aggies improved their record to 18-1 overall and 10-0 in conference play, and the Mustangs dropped to 8-10, 3-7 as USU beat Cal Poly for the second time this season.
“We’ve won around here enough that sometimes we get knit-picky with our wins,” Morrill said. “I refuse to do that. We won and it was good to win.”
After leading most of the game, the Ags found themselves trailing Cal Poly 41-40 after a pair of Shane Schilling free throws with 11:28 left in the second half.
Senior guard Mark Brown answered, taking a charge from Schilling and scoring five of the game’s next seven points. Brown led the way for the Ags and finished the game with 14 points, five assists and two rebounds.
“I had an open shot so I took it,” Brown said. “You don’t have time to be nervous. The game’s too fast to be nervous.”
After losing the lead for the first – and only – time, USU’s defense clamped down and held the Mustangs to a mere two points, a Kameron Gray fast-break lay-up off a botched USU pass, in the games final 11:28.
“We just started playing,” Aggie forward Spencer Nelson said. “I don’t think anything needed to be said. We just knew we had to start getting some stops.”
The presence of Cal Poly center Varnie Dennis created difficulties in the post for the Ags early on. USU looked for perimeter shots to fall, but had little success from behind the arc, going three for 10 from three-point land in the first half and five of 19 for the game.
“We missed a lot of opens shots,” Morrill said. “But they’re shots that will fall for us if we keep taking them. That’s all you can do in the game of basketball.”
Despite outrebounding Cal Poly by a large margin (40-21), the game was kept within the Mustang’s reach, thanks in part to 15 USU turnovers.
“[Cal Poly] caused the turnovers by changing their defenses and doubling the post,” Morrill said. “We got a little out of sorts out there.”
For the Mustangs, Shane Schilling led all scorers, finishing the night with 17 points on 7-of-21 shooting. After scoring nine in the first half, Dennis was held to only four second-half points and finished the game with 13 points and five rebounds.
“We doubled [Dennis] in the post and he had a little trouble with that,” Morrill said. “Then we went to changing defense and they were having a little trouble with the zone. They had a stretch where they just couldn’t get much going.”
Dennis, Gray and Schilling all played the game’s entire 40 minutes for Cal Poly.
“They’re great players,” Nelson said. “They’re going to bring it every night.”
Nate Harris, the national leader in field goal percentage (70 percent), scored 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds.
Also for the Aggies, Nelson recorded a 10-point, 13-rebound double-double. Nelson struggled from the line, going 4-of-11 for the game, but refused to use his protective mask as an excuse.
“I’m just trying to put together a complete game,” Nelson said. “If it’s not playing offense or defense, it’s shooting free throws like it was tonight. So I’ll just keep playing and hopefully it’ll come soon.”
The newly ranked Ags look to maintain their No. 24 national position with the victory over the Mustangs.
“We’ve never been here before, so obviously we’d like to stay here,” Harris said. “It’s fun to be in this situation. We just need to maintain what we’re doing.”
USU now turns their focus to its rematch with the preseason Big West favorite Gauchos of UC Santa Barbara. The afternoon game will tipoff at 4 p.m. to accommodate a Fox Sports television broadcast.
“You sometimes make the mistake when you’re in first place that it’s going to be easy,” Morrill said. “It’s never easy. People are going to come in gunning for you.”
-acf@cc.usu.edu