Aggies drop conference opener to Nevada 72-49

Utah State men’s basketball lost its first conference game to No. 6 Nevada on Wednesday 72-49. The Aggies fall to 10-4 on the season while Nevada moves to 14-0.

The Aggies finished with a season-low 49 points on 26 percent shooting and 17 percent from 3-point range. Utah State also tied a season-high with 20 turnovers.

Freshman guard Brock Miller said Utah State got the shots it wanted in the game, but was unable to hit them.

“We moved the ball really well,” Miller said. “We had some good, open looks… Those are going to fall. We just gotta stay positive and keep our heads up.”

USU head coach Craig Smith also said the team had struggles shooting the ball for several reasons in the game. Smith said the offense was really bothered by Nevada’s defense.

“It was painful to watch on offense,” Smith said. “Obviously, their length and athleticism really bothered us. Their size and their speed and their length got us really sped up on the offensive end.”

USU Junior guard Sam Merrill said the Wolfpack are the toughest team the Aggies have played so far this season, and the Aggies didn’t play up to par to get a victory.

“49 points and 20 turnovers just isn’t going to cut it,” Merrill said. “They’re a good defensive team. They’re probably the longest team that we’ve played up until this point.”

Smith said Merrill, the Aggies leading scorer, will have trouble in games coming up until another player can help score the ball.

“He’s going to get doubled and life is going to be miserable for him until we can get some other guys going.” Smith said.

Miller said the Aggies need to take the good they can out of this loss.

“We were a little bit flat coming out,” Miller said, “but we held them to 39 percent from the field. It’s just one of those games. We are going to learn from it.”

Smith said the Aggies’ turnovers hurt them majorly in the game and that he will consider running more plays going forward.

“We just turned it over a lot,” Smith said. “Maybe we just need to be a lot more structured, especially against the better teams.”

Smith said the team is going to find out how tough it is on Saturday against Air Force.

“Air Force is a team that plays so grind-you-out,” Smith said. “You gotta be very, very sound. You have to really crave and want to play against that type of stuff. We have to show mental toughness to be locking into this thing.”

Miller said the team is looking for the challenge of Air Force coming up on Saturday.

“They’ll be a tough matchup,” he said. “A lot of movement, back-cuts. It’s going to be a good game for us.”

Utah State is now 10-4 on the season and 0-1 in Mountain West Conference play. The Aggies look forward to Saturday’s game against Air Force in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum at 7 p.m.