Ags down Titans in Spectrum
Cardell Butler is going to miss the Spectrum.
The senior guard scored a career-high 31 points in his final home game coming one shy of a school record for three-pointers a game, leading Utah State to an 87-61 victory over Cal State Fullerton.
Cardell’s mother, Rosaria, surprised him by showing up for Senior Night after telling him she couldn’t come, and from the way things turned out, Aggie Head Coach Stew Morrill should have made sure she was at every game this year.
“I wasn’t mad, but I was worried that my mom wasn’t coming,” Butler said. “When she showed up, that was my spark right there. That got me going.”
Butler said she did the same thing to him when he was in junior college with the same results.
“I’m a momma’s boy,” he said.
Butler hit eight three-pointers in the contest and kissed the floor at center court when Morrill sent him out for a curtain call late in the game.
Morrill honored the seniors by giving reserves Mike Ahmad and forward Chad Evans the start alongside usual starters Butler and point guard Mark Brown.
“I think [Cardell’s] confidence was contagious,” Morrill said. “We were having fun playing basketball tonight, which is kind of what you need to do. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in trying to keep winning that you forget how fun the game is.”
Butler’s three-point shooting sparked a 22-6 run in the first half and helped the Ags to a 43-27 lead at the break. Butler had 22 points at the half and finished with 31 on 11-of-15 shooting from the field and 8-of-10 from beyond the arc.
As a team, Utah State hit 13-of-18 three-point attempts, tying a team record for threes in a game as well. The Aggies made 13 against the Titans in 1999 and against BYU, in 1990, both on the road. Little-used walk on Tyler Williams came close to breaking the record for USU, drilling a long two-pointer at the buzzer for his first points of the season, but he wasn’t quite far enough away.
USU hit 68 percent of its shots and 72 percent of three-point attempts.
Brown also made his last game in the Spectrum a solid one, adding 10 points and nine assists.
Utah State got a scare at the end of the first half when Spencer Nelson took an elbow to his already broken nose and left the game. Nelson was able to return in the second half, but was to undergo another surgical procedure Saturday night and will have to wear his protective mask until the season’s end now.
Nelson and forward Jason Williams joined Butler and Brown in double figures for the game, scoring 10 and 12 respectively.
Utah State’s Nate Harris, who scored a then-career best 22 the last time the Aggies faced the Titans, ended with nine points but set a career high for assists with eight.
Two of Harris’ assists went for emphatic dunks for the Ags. Harris found Butler for an alley-oop on USU’s final bucket of the first half and a backdoor bounce pass to a cutting Williams to get the crowd going early in the second.
Utah State had 23 assists and only turned the ball over six times in the game.
Titan forward Pape Sow, who was held to seven points in the two teams’ last meeting, led CSF with an 18-point, 13-rebound double-double.
“He’s something,” Morrill said. “He’s an amazing athlete.”
True freshman Bobby Brown added 15 for the Titans, but Fullerton could never move closer than a 12-point deficit in the second half. Brown had a team-high 19 when the Ags faced CSF in Fullerton.
Forward Anthony Bolton had 11 for the Titans, who shot 38 percent for the game.
Utah State will now finish the season with three straight road games, starting at Long Beach State Feb. 26. The Aggies will then face UC Irvine Feb. 28 in a nationally televised game on ESPN2 and end the regular season at Idaho Feb. 5.
-royburton@cc.usu.edu