Aggies falter against Cougars in Provo
Through eight games, Utah State defied its assigned preseason expectations. Despite being one of the youngest Division I teams and starting two freshmen along with a sophomore with almost zero experience, the Aggies showed no signs typical of young, inexperienced teams.
Not until Wednesday, that is.
In one of the biggest early-season challenges — a trip to the Marriott Center to face BYU — Utah State (7-2) faltered, losing 95-80. It was arguably the first major sign of weakness and mortality shown by the young Aggie squad. Previously, the team’s only stumble came away from home against the top-25 ranked Arizona State (by just five points, 87-82).
“We showed some of our youth and inexperience tonight.” said USU head coach Craig Smith. “I wish I would’ve called more and should’ve used all four timeouts in that first half to help our guys out from that respect. But give (BYU) credit.”
BYU (6-4) took Utah State’s normally stingy defense to town, making a season-high 11 threes on an also season-best 45.8 long-range shooting percentage. Overall, the Cougars made 55.9 percent of their field goals. Coming into the game, the Aggies had only allowed one opponent to make more than 40 percent of its shots (Arizona State, 50.0 percent).
“(BYU) played fantastic basketball,” Smith said. “I can’t speak for them, but I thought that was their best game of the year. They played with a lot of confidence. They’ve been struggling shooting the three consistently, shooting 28 percent. We were hoping tonight it wasn’t going to be the night they were going to break out of it because you just knew it was going to be a matter of time.”
Yoeli Childs led the Cougars’ attack on offense, tying a season high with 31 points. T.J. Haws, Nick Emery and Connor Harding led BYU’s backcourt. The guard trio accounted for nine of their team’s 11 threes and scored a combined 45 points on 70 percent field goal percentage.
Utah State never led in the game, nor was the contest tied after BYU’s Zac Seljaas scored the first Cougar bucket 12 seconds into the game. With 15:31 left in the first half, the Aggies were down just three points, but the home team methodically built double-digit lead that they would never relinquish (the closest USU came in the second half was 12 points.).
“It was a tough game,” said freshman center Neemias Queta. “In the first half, we didn’t play how we wanted to. In the second half, we put up a fight and BYU is a really good team. They were really good stopping us.”
Queta grabbed a team-leading eight rebounds — five of which were on offense — and was second only to junior guard Sam Merrill in points with 16 (Merrill finished with 17). Dwayne Brown Jr. and John Knight III added 15 and 11 points, respectively.
The offense overall wasn’t terrible but was handicapped by one of the Aggies’ worst opening halves of the season. They went 0 for 9 on 3-point shots and made just 35.3 percent of their overall attempts. Had USU shot the way it did in the second half (65.4 overall, 37.5 from three), its possible the Aggies could have kept up with the Cougars’ lights-out offense.
There won’t be too much time for Utah State to dwell on its first double-digit loss of the season. The Aggies will travel to Salt Lake City to face Weber State (5-3), who beat BYU 113-103 Dec. 1, Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in Vivint Smart Home Arena.