Aggies shake off shooting woes to take down Wyoming

With Utah State’s best shooter, junior Brock Miller out with back issues, Wyoming came into Thursday night’s game with an interesting strategy: Jam the box.

Denying junior Neemias Queta from getting the ball in the paint was its main concern, and dare the Aggies to shoot from outside.

Early on, the strategy seemed to work. Utah State started 0-10 from three the first ten minutes, Queta had zero points, and the Aggies trailed 19 to 12, 10 minutes into the ball game.

But thanks to the sharp-shooting of freshman Steven Ashworth, and the efforts of junior Justin Bean, the offense got rolling and Utah State won the final home game of the season 72-59 over the Cowboys. The win guarantees a top three seed for the Aggies in next week’s Mountain West tournament.

“They came out with a strategy we hadn’t seen yet this season…I think it messed with us to start the game,” Ashworth said. “We knew we had to come back, make a run on our own, and I think that’s exactly what we did.”

The primary player the Cowboys left open at the start of the game was Bean. His defender was sagging off nearly to the restricted area. Being so wide open seemed to rattle him, as he missed three open jumpers to start the game.

But as it often does, a hustle play got him and his team going. Down seven with 9:20 left in the first half, Bean dove on the floor after a loose ball corralled it and dished it to Worster. After a sequence of playground ball, Anderson got the ball back to Bean and Bean went up for the and-one layup.

brb still not over that last play👀#AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/RhBHqUi23m

— USU Men's Hoops (@USUBasketball) March 5, 2021

For the rest of the game, he found ways to the hoop and started to knock down mid-range jumpers. Bean finished 10 of 20 from the field for a game-high 21 points, plus 10 rebounds.

“I think his game has really evolved and I think it helps us when he shoots,” said USU head coach Craig Smith. “I thought he self-corrected in a great way and just played the way he needs to play.”

Ashworth — who finished with 13 points off the bench — was also a catalyst in getting the Aggies going early on. At the 9:05 mark in the first half, he hit Aggie’s first three of the game to cut the lead to just two. Moments later he drew a charge, forcing a Wyoming turnover, and then proceeded to hit a jumper from the elbow to tie the game at 22.

“With the way that they were defending us Bean was wide open, so we drew up a couple of plays for me to come off ball screens with Bean setting it which means there wouldn’t be a help defender because they were sinking in,” Ashworth said. “I kind of had the mindset that I needed to attack off that screen…It was fun to have some opportunities to make plays.”

KING QUETA 👑

⚡️@nemi1599#AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/XCDuszhVXg

— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) March 5, 2021

The Aggies as a whole would finish the second half 15 of 29 (51.7 percent) from the field and 4 of 5 (80 percent) from three.

Not only did Utah State have to figure out the offensive woes, but they also had to figure how to cool off the Cowboy’s hot-shooting. Missing Miller, arguably the Aggie’s most effective perimeter defender, the defense struggled early. Wyoming was 8 of 17 (47 percent) from beyond the arc in the first half, with junior Drake Jeffries hitting three of them.

“Length on the defensive end to contest some of those shooters was something that we missed,” Ashworth said.

But in the second half, adjustments were made and the Cowboy’s shooting was shut down. They hit just 1 of 14 threes (7.1 percent). The cold-shooting forced them to attack the rim, which was also ineffective, thanks to the presence of Queta. He finished with four second-half blocks, and helped in holding Wyoming to just 24 second-half points.

“I loved how we played in the second half, holding them to 1-for-14 from 3,” Smith said. “We really guarded the ball well and made it difficult on them.”

The Aggies now direct their attention toward the final regular season game of the year against the Fresno State Bulldogs, who they play on the road Saturday night.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do, but I think our guys will be very focused,” Smith said. “Fresno State has been playing excellent basketball, just beat Boise State the other day, beat UNLV last week as well. We’ll have our work cut out for us.”

@jacobnielson12

—sports@usustatesman.com