Aggies fall as Boise State out-shoots Utah State
For only the second time in the history of the series, the Utah State men’s basketball team lost a home game to Boise State, falling 76-61 on Tuesday night.
It’s the second consecutive win in Logan for the Broncos, who were 0-18 before a 68-63 win last February.
“Defensively, that’s about as un-solid and as poor of a performance as you can possibly have,” said head coach Tim Duryea. “Really, you give yourself no chance to win.”
Boise State shot over 70 percent from the field in the second half, repeatedly taking advantage of defensive breakdowns to get easy layups.
“They have a hard motion offense to guard, so we were doing a five-way switch which sometimes put our point guard on their big guys,” said junior forward Jalen Moore. “They were capitalizing on that.”
The breakdowns came after the switches occurred, as the Aggies were unable to prevent Boise from getting the ball into the post.
“We try to front the post to keep it out and sometimes they would throw it over the top and we wouldn’t have a backside to help and they would lay it in or get fouled,” Moore said. “We went to the five-way switch for about six minutes or so and they were able to capitalize on that.”
The loss dropped the Aggies to 9-5 on the season and 1-2 in the conference. Coupled with a loss to San Diego State on Saturday, it also marks the first time USU has lost consecutive home games since the 2013-2014 season.
Utah State started the game strong, scoring the first six points en route to a 13-7 lead. Moore was pivotal for the Aggies early, blocking a shot attempt by BSU forward James Webb III on the first possession and scoring seven of the team’s first 13 points.
With the Aggies leading 8-5, Moore lost his defender on a backdoor cut for an easy dunk, assisted by his brother Grayson Moore. A defensive breakdown by the Broncos on the next possession left Jalen Moore wide open at the 3-point line. The Aggies’ leading scorer calmly set his feet and knocked down the 3 to give USU the 13-7 lead.
It was the largest lead the Aggies would have all game.
The Broncos responded to Moore’s shot with a 3 from junior Nick Duncan, part of an 11-2 run that gave the visitors an 18-15 lead. The back-and-forth play continued the rest of the half as Boise State took a 31-29 lead into the break.
The Aggies reclaimed the lead just 21 seconds into the second half on a 3 from the top of the arc by junior Lew Evans. Boise State responded, though, with another 11-2 run over a three minute span that gave the Broncos a 42-34 lead.
Utah State made one more push in the second half, closing within one after a midrange shot by junior Shane Rector and a 3-pointer by sophomore Julion Pearre. The Aggies were unable to get over the hump, though, as the Broncos opened up a double-digit lead on the heels of a 16-4 run.
“It’s going to take us as players to come together,” Grayson Moore said. “We’re the ones that go out on the floor… We’ve got to just come together as players and take it on ourselves to get the next win.”
After forcing 12 Boise turnovers in the first half, USU was only able to force four takeaways in the second. That, coupled with the Broncos’ hot shooting, proved to be the Aggies’ downfall.
“We got some turnovers, but did not convert enough of those into points,” Duryea said. “You give up 70 percent defensively in a half, it’s impossible to keep up.”
Utah State scored only 14 points on the 16 BSU turnovers.
The Broncos shot 59.6 percent from the field in Tuesday’s game, the highest shooting percentage the Aggies have allowed since giving up 63.2 percent against Hawaii in the 2010-11 season. BSU also outscored USU 38-28 in the paint.
Jalen Moore finished with a game-high 18 points on 8 of 19 shooting, including 2 of 8 from deep. No other Aggie scored in double-digits, only the second time that has happened this season.
After scoring a career-high 22 points on 4 of 7 shooting on Saturday, Lew Evans struggled against BSU. He scored just five points on 2 of 9 shooting and had two turnovers.
The Aggies return to the floor on Saturday when they travel to Albuquerque to take on New Mexico.
– thomas.sorenson@aggiemail.usu.edu
– Twitter: @tomcat340