Aggies take down Spartans at home

The Utah State Aggies beat the San Jose State Spartans 88-70 Saturday night at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.

“Tonight I feel like we played really well as a team,” said redshirt freshman Quinn Taylor, after posting his first double-double, putting up 16 points and 10 rebounds. “The first half we played really well and moved the ball, and the second half we heated up.”

Senior guard Chris Smith led all scorers with 20 points, on 6 of 11 shooting.

The Aggies found a lot of success feeding the ball into the paint. They created scoring opportunities off of dribble penetration, and got into the lane consistently which led to easy buckets or fouls.

“The thing we did against their switching defense was we drove the ball,” said USU head coach Tim Duryea. “We didn’t make great decisions when driving the ball in the first half, but we drove the ball, and that was key for us.”

Utah State converted on 69 percent of its chances from the free throw line, and established a small lead in the first half. Despite the easy buckets, San Jose State was able to stick around by hitting shots from behind the three-point line. In the first half, San Jose State shot 55 percent from deep.

With 6:28 left in the first half, Ivo Basor hit a 3-pointer to give the Spartans their first lead of the game. Nine seconds later, Darius Perkins hit a 3-point shot of his own, and the Aggies never looked back. The 3-pointer from Perkins was the spark that started the fire, as Utah State started hitting from three.

USU hit some big shots late in the first half and pushed their lead to seven, 43-36 at the break.

One of the biggest struggles for Utah State this season is starting the second half strong. Tonight, it reversed that trend. Continuing where they left off, Utah State caught fire in the second half, and went on a 31-9 run. At the peak of their run, the Aggies were shooting 80% from the field. Not only was the Aggie offense hitting on all cylinders, the defense came up big as well.

USU forced nine turnovers that led to 15 points. The defense was also strong on the perimeter, forcing the Spartans to shoot just 7 percent from 3-point land in the second half. With 8:30 left in the game, Utah State had pushed their lead to a game high, 31 points.

“They took it to us, giving us a good ol’ butt whoopin’. We lost our discipline defensively,” said Spartan coach Dave Wojcik. “We had breakdowns defensively, which led to open 3-point shots, and we just can’t do that against a team in this league.”

From that point on, the game was no longer in question. Utah State relaxed, and San Jose State was able to go on a late run. They pulled the game within 15, with 2:30 left, but that’s as close as they got. Utah State ran down the clock and the game ended with a final score of 88-70.

“We did what we were supposed to do on the defensive end, but the last eight minutes was horrific, so we have to work on that,” Perkins said. “Overall, we played a good game, I am proud of the guys and I hope we can keep this momentum going.”

Utah State travels to Colorado Springs next week to take on Air Force on Tuesday. After Air Force, the Aggies return home for the final game of the regular season against Fresno State on Saturday.

— christian.mckinnon.15@gmail.com

Twitter: @CFMcKinnon