Aggies look to get back on winning track vs Cowboys
Fresh off a disappointing 68-63 loss at San Diego State, the Utah State men’s basketball team will try to re-mobilize at home against Wyoming.
“We’ve got to bounce back from a tough loss on Saturday,” Aggies head coach Craig Smith said. “San Diego State played great, and we didn’t do some things very well. That includes rebounding. We have to shore that thing up and come out with our pants on fire against Wyoming.”
The loss removed the Aggies’ one-game lead over Fresno State for second place in the Mountain West. The two teams are now tied and are two games behind first-place Nevada.
Sam Merrill scored 35 points in the loss to the Aztecs but had zero assists for just the third time in the last two years. The rest of the team accounted for just 28 points on 32 percent shooting. There were plenty of other shortcomings which Smith said the team is aware of and willing to work on.
“These guys are very coachable and able to not be sensitive,” he said, “as well as objectively looking in the mirror and realize we collectively need to be better.”
Utah State has already face the Cowboys once this season, winning 71-55 at Wyoming to get the program’s first win in Laramie since 1962.
Smith called the first matchup a “tale of two halves,” particularly the early part of the first half where the Cowboys held multiple eight-point leads 12-4 and 16-8. The Aggies then finished the half by holding the Cowboys to just nine points in the final 10 minutes of the first half to take a 32-25 lead. USU then expanded its lead to take home the 16-point victory.
Wyoming guard Justin James scored 27 points in the first meeting. The senior leads the Mountain West in several statistical categories including points and minutes. He also leads the Cowboys in the five major stats with 20.9 points, 8.6 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.6 blocks (and 4.0 turnovers).
In the Cowboys’ last game, James scored 36 points with seven assists and six rebounds on 71 percent shooting from the field in his team’s 74-66 win over Colorado State.
In recent games, Merrill has enjoyed a renewed scoring touch. In his first XX games of conference play the junior averaged just 16.7 points and was making just 43.1 percent of his shots and 30.3 from deep. In that span he had just one 20-point game. Since then, however, Merrill has averaged a league-best 25.2 points per game on 48.2 percent shooting overall and 43.6 percent from 3-point range.