Aggies stay hot, beat Colorado State at home
Utah State used hot shooting from deep to beat Colorado State 87-72 and get its third-straight Mountain West Conference win.
The Aggies took 25 3-pointers — third-most this season by USU — making 12, nearly matching the team’s season high of 13, set against UC Irvine back on Dec. 1.
“We’ve been shooting the ball a lot better the last few games,” USU head coach Craig Smith said, adding that he thinks the ”guys are just settling in” with the team now 19 games into the season.
Freshman guard Brock Miller was responsible of half of those with five in the first half alone and six overall. That total matched his personal career-high set earlier this season.
Miller has turned around his season recently in terms of 3-point shooting. In December, he made only 25 percent of his shots from deep. In January, that percentage is up to 44.4 percent.
Utah State freshman guard Brock Miller shoots the ball over Colorado State’s Kris Martin in the first half of USU’s 87-72 win Saturday – Photo by Tim Carpenter
“Overall, I’ve felt more confident,” Miller said of his uptick in shooting. “I’ve always had confidence in my shot but it’s been good to see a couple shots fall.”
Miller finished with 18 points, tied with fellow freshman Neemias Queta for most in the game by any player. Queta secured his third double-double of the season by adding 11 rebounds and had three blocks to boot.
Queta drew one of the biggest responsibilities on defense: the unenviable task of guarding CSU center Niko Carvacho. The redshirt junior had been on a tear in conference, averaging 23.5 points and 12.5 rebounds per game in Mountain West play. Queta proved to be up to the task, holding the 6-foot-11, 240-pound big to 12 points in the game, his lowest total since Dec. 30.
“He’s a really good player,” Queta said of Carvacho. “Us big men, we did a really good job on him. He still ended up with 12 points but I think we did really good on him.”
Four of Carvacho’s six first-half points came with Queta sitting on the bench. This led to Smith resolving that in the second half, he would only take the Portuguese big out if Rams’ head coach Niko Medved removed his star big. Carvacho never stepped foot on the court in the second and neither did Queta, leading to high praise from Smith for his 36-minute performance.
“Neemias was an animal, quite frankly,” Smith said. “He really anchored us, I thought he was really really good, especially early on.”
Without Carvacho’s dominance inside, Colorado State yielded the paint to the Aggies with USU outscoring the Rams 38-20 in the paint and finish with a 39-24 rebound advantage.
Five players overall for USU finished in double figures. Behind Miller and Queta were Sam Merrill (16), Diogo Brito (12) and Quinn Taylor (12). The Aggies had 23 assists total, third-most this season. After the game, everyone focussed on how much the team has been sharing lately, especially Smith.
“Since Nevada, I feel like we’re sharing the ball (more),” he said. “Not that we were ever a selfish team. But I just think our ball movement is much crisper…good passing teams are good shooting teams and I feel like since Nevada we’ve passed it much more efficiently.”
Utah State will get a full week off, with its next game coming at New Mexico next Saturday.
“I think it’s good,” Miller said of the time off, “We have a lot of players that are banged up and I think that it’ll be good for our bodies and minds to relax for a day or two. And obviously we’re going to get after it and really prepare for New Mexico.”
Smith said the break is “perfect timing for us,” also mentioning that, as some minor motivation, he would give the players an extra day off if they won.