Aggies outlast EA Sports
EA Sports forward Nick Bradford dunked the ball to tie the game at 87-87 with 27 seconds left, but the Utah State University men’s basketball team was too strong in overtime for the Southwest All-stars. The Aggies came away with a 106-97 victory Saturday at the Spectrum in their first exhibition game of the year.
The win helped the Aggies unofficially get the season off on the right foot.
Utah State dominated the extra period after struggling to close out regulation by hitting six of seven shots from the field and hitting all seven free throws attempted in overtime.
The Aggies had an opportunity to win the game before it went into overtime but they turned the ball over with 3.3 seconds left.
EA Sports had an opportunity to win as well, but they were unable to get a final shot off with the time left after getting the Aggie turnover.
The overtime period was the second in two days for the All-stars, who beat the University of Utah Utes 92-86 Friday.
The All-star team, which is sponsored by video game maker Electronic Arts, is made of former college players. The team will play 15 exhibition games in 20 days.
Utah State forward Desmond Penigar led the charge by scoring 25 points and pulling down 13 rebounds.
Forward Cardell Butler, making his Aggie debut, was the only other Aggie to score more than 20 points. He scored 21 points in 25 minutes coming off the bench.
“Coach [Stew] Morrill told me to take good shots and told me that if I see a lane, take it,” Butler said. “He said that if I take it hard and miss, it’s OK.”
EA Sports had solid play from guard Brett McFall, a former player for the University of Wyoming. McFall led the team in scoring, coming off the bench with 24 points.
He was second on the team in rebounding with six.
This is the second time the Aggies have gone into overtime in as many years against the EA Sports team. Last season, the Aggies pulled out a 79-74 win with the extra time.
Even though the games have been close, Morrill is glad to play these types of games.
“Those types of games are so much better for us than playing foreign teams that you don’t know if they are any good or not,” Morrill said. “We played a college team when I was at Colorado State from Australia and we won 120-34 or something. Those kind of games are absolutely no good.
“We have stuck with playing the same exhibition teams here for awhile because we know this is what we are going to get. We are going to get some talented players who throw a lot of different things at you.”
The exhibition game gave the Aggies the opportunity to get some of their own players back into the swing of things.
Along with Butler, who sat out last season after transferring from the College of Southern Idaho, center Mike Puzey played his first game since transferring from the University of Utah.
Puzey scored 15 points and eight rebounds.
“I’m having fun playing again,” Puzey said. “I’m glad it’s just the beginning [of the season].”
Both teams had their opportunities to pull away. While the EA Sports team used three-point shots to keep the game close, shooting nine-for-32 from behind the arc, the Aggies shot 48 percent from the floor and worked on making the easy shots that were given to them.
“Coach talked to me [and said] just take it at them,” Penigar said. “These guys can’t handle you, just take it to them. After that, I just took it to them and the rest is history.”
The Aggies are currently ranked No. 7 in ESPN’s mid-major top 10 poll. ESPN is not the only predicting big things for the Aggies as Basketball News has predicted Utah State will win the Big West.
While this game does not count for the Aggies’ regular season record, this win goes a long way in justifying those predictions.
-jwhigg@cc.usu.edu