Aggies open season on the road
The last time the Utah State University men’s basketball team matched up with Montana State University, freshman Calvin Brown and Nate Harris were not born yet.
The Aggies fell 55-51 to the MSU Bobcats on Dec. 5, 1981 in Bozeman, Mont.
For the first time since the 1993-94 season, Utah State University will open its regular season play on the road at Montana State University at 7:05 p.m. on Saturday.
The Aggies lost to Colorado State University 78-65 to open their 1993-94 campaign. Last season, USU opened the season on neutral ground as they defeated the University of Santa Clara 76-67 in Fairbanks, Alaska at The Top of the World Classic.
“We haven’t opened on the road for a long time,” USU Head Coach Stew Morrill said. “Certainly that presents a different challenge.”
The Aggies have opened the last few seasons in the Spectrum but the schedule just didn’t fall that way, Morrill said.
Following the 72-76 loss to Next Level Sports on Nov. 10, Morrill was confident his team would come to practice ready to improve.
Although the Aggies did lose in the Spectrum, USU’s 23-game home winning streak was not broken because it was an exhibition game.
Montana fell to the Fresno State Bulldogs 92-70 Tuesday in California in preseason National Invitational Tournament action. Senior guard James Clark led the Bobcats with 16 points going 5-for-12 shooting and making a perfect 6-for-6 at the free-throw line.
The game Saturday will be the 114th time the two teams will have met, the third oldest rivalry only behind BYU (217) and the University of Utah (213).
“We’ll be ready to go, you can count on that,” USU senior forward Brennan Ray said. “Montana State will be a tough team. It’s on the road but we’ll get her done.”