Aggies earn sweet revenge
Last season UC Santa Barbara defeated the Utah State men’s basketball team in a nationally televised game, knocking it out of the Big West Conference Tournament in the process.
The Aggies (12-3, 3-1) weren’t about to let the Gauchos (5-9, 2-2) repeat that outcome Saturday in the Spectrum, rolling on to a 75-59 victory in an ESPN2 televised game.
Aggie forward Desmond Penigar said he viewed Saturday’s game as revenge.
“We wanted to get them back and that’s what we did,” he said. “We were waiting for this game for a long time.”
Not everyone shared the feeling, though. Head Coach Stew Morrill said he didn’t think last season’s game was a factor.
“One thing we’ve tried to do with this team is worry about this year,” he said. “I think we were excited to play on TV, and they’re picked to win the league, and we were anxious to go out and play good basketball.”
Forward Spencer Nelson said, “Playing Santa Barbara, which we know is a good team, and playing on national television with a huge crowd, that was really motivation enough for us to just come out and play the best we could.”
To open the game, the Aggies jumped on the Gauchos, scoring the first six points before UCSB was able to answer with a pair of free throws by guard Nick Jones.
The teams started trading baskets, but the Aggies were able to inch out to a 19-11 lead when forward Nate Harris ducked around his defender on the baseline for a layup.
Santa Barbara scored five straight points to trim the margin to three, but it was as close as it would get the remainder of the game.
The Aggies went up by as much as 11, but the Gauchos kept within striking range at halftime, trailing 36-29.
Once again, though, Utah State took over the game in the second half. After watching the lead drop to 44-39 just over seven minutes into the half, the Aggies opened the game up.
“We played much more solid in the second half,” Morrill said. “We were playing hard in the first half but we were making a few bonehead plays out there. In the second half we just kind of dug in and played solid.”
Sparked by forward Cardell Butler, Utah State went on a 9-0 run and built a 14-point lead. Butler hit a five-foot shot to start the run and followed it up with a three pointer from the right wing — his first in 21 tries this season.
“All I did was worry about my defense, and eventually I made one [shot],” Butler said. “After that first one I made, I was confident after that.”
Penigar added a 15-foot jumper from the left baseline and forward Chad Evans capped the run, getting behind the defense on an inbound play and taking the down-court pass from Spencer Nelson in for a dunk to put USU up 53-39.
Butler hit his second three with 3:53 left in the game, answering a three pointer by Gaucho guard Jacoby Atako and starting another nine-point Aggie run to close out UCSB.
For the game, Utah State’s shooting was hot at 51.9 percent. Leading the Aggie attack was Penigar who finished with 15 points and six rebounds. Three other Aggies also reach double digits as Nelson picked up 13 points, Harris added 12, and Butler chipped in 10.
“We had pretty good balance,” Morrill said. “That might be Nate Harris’ best game as an Aggie. We had a lot of different guys do a lot of different things.”
Santa Barbara was held to only 34.6 percent shooting, going 18-52 and only 6-25 from beyond the three-point arc.
“You have to give them credit defensively, but our inability to shoot the ball was really a factor tonight,” said UCSB Head Coach Bob Williams. “Part of it was the great job they do defensively. The other part of it was that we weren’t knocking down shots. We normally knock down open three pointers.”
Forward Mark Hull led the Gauchos with 15 points while Jones put in 11.
On the boards Utah State performed well again, out rebounding UCSB 39-26. Nelson grabbed 12 rebounds, six offensively and six defensively, to record his second double-double of the season.
With the victory, Utah State moves into a second-place tie in the Big West with California State University Fullerton at 3-1. Pacific leads the league at 3-0 in conference play.
–slbk5@cc.usu.edu
Barbara Moore, an undeclared freshman, helps cheer on the basketball team Saturday. (Photo by Ryan Talbot)
Aggie guard Mark Brown dishes off an assist during Saturday´s game against UC Santa Barbara. (Photo by Ryan Talbot)