Aggies start season on right foot
Opening the regular season on the road for the first time since the 1993-1994 season, the Utah State men’s basketball team got off on the right foot, defeating Montana State University 66-51 Saturday night in Bozeman, Mont.
“It is really nice to get a win to start the season, and certainly to get one on the road is a bonus,” Aggie Head Coach Stew Morrill said. “All in all, just to find a way to win is really positive.
One of the biggest things Morrill was worried about in preparation for the game was the Bobcats’ ability to put a lot of points on the board and their ability to knock down shots from behind the arc.
“We needed to keep the game, I thought, in the 60s or 70s and not in the 80s or 90s [in order to win],” Morrill said.
Ranked second in the country in scoring defense pergame last year (57.5 points allowed), the Aggies were able to accomplish just that, holding MSU to an atrocious 30 percent shooting from the field. On the night, the Bobcats shot an even worse 2-of-24 from three-point range.
On the flip side, the Aggies shot 52 percent from the floor on 24-of-46 attempts, including a whopping 62 percent in the first half.
Worried about his team’s defense throughout the entire preseason, Morrill said he was pleased with the improvement the Aggies showed on Saturday night.
“We showed some signs of being able to guard them a little bit and that was encouraging,” he said.
Leading the way for USU’s offense was senior guard Tony Brown. Brown finished with a game-high 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including three treys. Point guard Ronnie Ross added 11 points, hitting 7-of-8 free throws in the process.
USU took control of the game in the first half, thanks to its hot shooting as the Aggies led by 18 points at halftime (38-20).
“We were rolling along real well in the first half,” Morrill said.
Down 20 points in the second half, the Bobcats were able to get the Aggies in foul trouble, eventually whittling the Aggie lead to five points. MSU went to the charity stripe 33 times, hitting 21 of its attempts.
“We were fouling too much in our man-to-man [defense],” Morrill said.
The Aggies would respond, changing from a man-to-man defense to a zone defense. As a result of mixing it up defensively, coupled with USU’s ability to connect on its foul shots, the Aggies were able to put the game out of reach.
For the game, USU went 14-of-17 from the line.
With the loss, the Bobcats fell to 0-2 on the season. Kenny Plummer paced the Bobcats with 12 points.
In addition to holding MSU to 51 points, USU won the battle of the boards, out-rebounding the Bobcats 35-27. Power forward Brennan Ray came of the bench and grabbed a team-high seven boards.
Although Morrill said the Aggies have a lot of things to work on, any victory on the road is a good one.
“If you do that [win of the road] you better be happy as a coach,” he said.
USU will continue its season on Friday in the Huntsmen Center against in-state foe the University of Utah.