Aggies prepare for fight against Wolf Pack
The Utah State men’s basketball team will play in Reno, Nevada on Tuesday against the University of Nevada.
Utah State is 10-7 on the season and 3-2 in Mountain West play. Nevada carries a record of 6-10 while sitting at 2-2 in conference play. The Aggies are coming off a 71-59 victory over Air Force. They shot a season-high 54 percent in the game.
“We played good offense, considering all the switching they were doing on defense,” said coach Stew Morrill following the Air Force win. “We shot a high percentage, took care of the ball. Those are the kind of things that got us the win. Chris Smith had a big night, and I felt JoJo McGlaston gave us a nice lift off the bench. It was a nice win for us.”
The Wolf Pack will be looking for redemption against Utah State after a 98-42 loss against Colorado State last week. The 42 points marked a season-low, and the 56-point margin is the second largest losing margin in school history.
“They’ve played some really good games,” Morrill said. “They went to UNLV and won. They had a debacle at Colorado State, which happens sometimes on the road. But their personal is very athletic, very physical.”
Offensively Utah State is led by sophomore Jalen Moore, who is averaging 15 points per game and seven rebounds. Freshman David Collette averages just over 12 points per game. Junior guard Chris Smith is coming off a 20-point game where he hit a season-high six out of seven three-point shots.
“It was one of those nights where I was feeling it,” Smith said after the game. “Everybody had the touch, everybody was sharing the ball, everybody was scoring, so it was good.”
Nevada has three players who average double-digit points. Junior AJ West is the leading scorer with 11.7 points per game. He is closely followed by guard D.J. Fenner at 11.3 and another guard Marqueze Coleman who averages over 10 points per game. West is also the team-leading rebounder with over nine rebounds per game and has a team-best 48 blocks.
“Rebounding is our weakness and it is their strength, so it is a bad combo,” Morrill said. “AJ West himself is averaging almost nine offensive rebounds a game in league — almost nine — and he blocks four shots every game. His stats are incredible … Like I say, that’s not been anything close to a strength of ours, and that’s probably going to be a big part of the game.”
The Aggies have struggled on the boards this season and are ranked No. 308 in the nation compared to No. 11 for the Wolf Pack.
Utah State will enter the game as the best three-point shooting team in the conference, averaging 39.3 percent from deep. Nevada is currently last in the MW, averaging 25.5 percent.
— kalen.s.taylor@gmail.com
Twitter: @kalen_taylor