Another Gossner Classic trophy
The Utah State men’s basketball team headed into its annual self-hosted tournament knowing that it could leave the tournament without a win.
The Athletes in Action Classic hosted by Gossner Foods held, by far, its toughest field in tournament history. University of Texas, Arlington, St. Peter’s and Kent State headline some of the top mid-major programs in the nation, but USU continued its domination of the tournament and came out unscathed.
Sophomore guard Preston Medlin earned Most Valuable Player honors while senior forward Morgan Grim and Kiysean Reed both made the All-Tournament team.
Utah State 73,
UT, Arlington 69
Medlin hit a career-high 27 points on 6-of-9 shooting from 3-point range and 8-of-12 shooting overall to propel USU past the Arlington Roadrunners on Dec. 20.
“It was another good night,” Medlin said. “They were playing a zone, and we were getting the ball around and getting some open shots.”
Reed finished the game with nine points and hit a pair of free throws with 3:32 remaining in the second half to give the Aggies their largest lead of the game at 70-52, but the Roadrunners wouldn’t go away quietly as they finished the half on a furious 17-3 run.
“We just did some bad things,” Medlin said. “We turned the ball over, they made some shots and we’ve just got to get better at that.”
Utah State 72, St. Peter’s 47
USU easily disposed of the Peacocks Dec. 21 as senior forward Grim led the way with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
Utah State 81, Kent State 62
The marquee matchup of the tournament featured USU and the Kent State Golden Flashes from the Mid-American Conference.
Reed scored a career-high 27 points on 12-of-13 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 shooting from the free-throw line, while Medlin chipped in 20 points to lead USU to a Dec. 23 victory.
“The tournament as a whole was encouraging,” Morrill said. “Certainly tonight was encouraging. We obviously had a good game. They’ve got a really good basketball team. I don’t think they were quite themselves, but hopefully we had something to do with that.”
Senior guard Brockeith Pane, who has been struggling offensively so far this season, dished out eight assists while committing one turnover and USU dished out 23 assists as a team.
“I think it’s more of a team thing,” Reed said. “We’re all executing better than we were a month ago.”‘
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu