Bracket busted
Despite trailing by as much as 16 points to UC Santa Barbara in the second half, USU men’s basketball had an opportunity to tie the game or take the lead against the Gauchos late in the game Saturday.
A layup and-1 from USU senior guard Brockeith Pane cut the lead 56-52, and senior forward Morgan Grim had the opportunity to cut the lead to two when he drew a foul from UC Santa Barbara forward Jaime Serna.
When Grim drew the foul, he had a few words for Serna, which earned him a technical foul.
UCSB senior forward James Nunnally hit both free throws, two of his game-high 24 points to go with 11 rebounds.
Grim missed the front end of his one-and-one, and USU never recovered en route to its fourth loss at home — a 72-64 at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum as part of the ESPNU BracketBusters.
“It was a really bonehead play, obviously,” said USU head coach Stew Morrill. “He can’t do that. It wasn’t a smart play. He knows it.”
Junior forward Kyisean Reed gave USU an 11-7 lead on a free throw, eight minutes into the first half. UC Santa Barbara responded with a 14-7 run to take the lead.
Sophomore guard Preston Medlin, who finished with a team-high 14 points, tied the game at 23-all with 2:19 to play, and UC Santa Barbara would go on a 19-6 run over the final two minutes of the first half and first four minutes of the second half.
“I guess we did come out quick enough,” USU freshman Jordan Stone said of the slow second-half start. “They came out and they were ready. They hit some 3’s and it kind of set us back. It put us on our heels. We weren’t ready to come back and guard them. It took us too long to come back, and we were down too much.”
Stone led the Aggies with eight rebounds and USU out-rebounded the Gauchos 31-30.
“He makes freshman errors, but he tries hard,” Morrill said. “I’d rather have guys make aggressive errors than non-aggressive errors, that’s for sure.”
Senior guard Orlando Johnson, who finished with 22 points, hit three 3-pointers as part of that run.
“We knew we drew a good team,” Morrill said. “We didn’t draw a poor Big Sky team, we drew a really good Big West team, and they basically showed it. Their two wings are exceptional players. We let them get going — Nunnally at the end of the first half and Johnson at the start of the second half. We had various breakdowns. We played hard, we kept battling, but they are just a veteran team and a good team.”
USU shot 41 percent overall and 5 of 20 for 25 percent from the 3-point line, while UCSB shot 53 percent overall and 14 of 21 from the 3-point line for 53 percent.
“When you look at the percentages, that is probably the thing we did the worst,” Morrill said of USU’s defensive effort.
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu
USU SOPHOMORE PRESTON MEDLIN puts up a floater over Santa Barbara center Greg Somogyi. Medlin scored a team-high 14 points and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds in a 72-64 loss against the Gauchos. CURTIS RIPPLINGER photo