Ags top Jackrabbits

Five minutes into Friday night’s game against South Dakota State, it looked like the game was over for the Aggies. With a 13-1 lead and Jaycee Carroll already with five points, Utah State seemed like it was well on its way to its 72-51 non-conference win over the Jackrabbits in the Spectrum.

“It’s easy to relax when you come out with a 13-1 lead,” USU’s Nate Harris said. “After that they pretty much beat us pretty bad the rest of the first half. We came out and got a good lead and kind of relaxed a little bit. It’s hard to stay up when you’ve got a big lead but you’ve got to find ways to still play solid basketball.”

Near the close of the first half, the Aggies had a 30-12 lead, but, as Harris said, they relaxed and let the Jackrabbits go on a 12-3 run. At the end of the half USU held a nine-point lead at 33-24.

However, despite the win, head coach Stew Morrill said there were some things the team still could have improved on.

“I thought we were sluggish,” Morrill said. “It’s hard in the middle of conference to play a game such as this. There’s no question, always has been. But I thought they’d rather do this than practice. I thought South Dakota State, for having been on the road, came in and played really hard.”

Morrill said despite the fact Utah State shot 54 percent to South Dakota State’s 33 and that the Aggies out-rebounded the Jackrabbits by 10, USU is going to have to play a lot harder to even compete against Hawai’i Monday night.

After making his first shot attempt, Carroll went on to make 4-of-8 from behind the arc to lead all scorers with 18 points.

“It felt good to hit my first shot,” he said. “It felt like things were going to start rolling and start coming again. I still kind of had a little stretch there where I missed a couple shots in a row.

“[But] it’s going to happen, you’re going to miss some shots and hopefully you make more than you miss.”

Three other Aggies finished the game in double-digits. Harris had 15 while David Pak finished with 14 on 4-of-5 from the 3-point line. Center Cass Matheus put 10 points up on the board while grabbing a team-high six rebounds.

For South Dakota State, Andre Gilbert led the team in scoring with 12 points. Mohamed Berte was the only other Jackrabbit in double digits with 11 points.

Carroll said that although the team was happy with the win, it knows it will have to flip a switch and pick up its intensity for Hawai’i.

The game against Hawai’i tips off at 10 p.m. in the Spectrum and will be televised on ESPN2.

-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu

USU’s Durrall Peterson drives around South Dakota State’s Andy Kleijan Friday night in the Spectrum. The Aggies defeated the Jackrabbits 72-51.