BYU bests Utah State at Beehive Classic
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah State failed to exorcise its demons against BYU, losing to the Cougars 68-64 on the hardwood, marking it the eighth time in a row dating back to 2013.
USU’s last win over BYU — a 69-62 victory in 2011 — dates back to the Stew Morrill and predates the Aggies’ Mountain West days. Last season, Utah State lost 95-80 in a visit to Provo early in the year.
The Cougars led for the last 35 minutes of the game, but Utah State fought back several times. With 2:52 left, the Aggies went on a 6 to 2 run to draw within one point, 65-64. After a stop, a lead was dead in the team’s sights. Unfortunately, a Justin Bean layup attempt was blocked and while Neemias Queta grabbed the loose ball, his lay-in attempt bounced around the cup and fell out into BYU’s hands.
One play later, Alex Barcello nailed a corner three to put BYU up four points with 27 seconds left, putting a dagger in the Aggies’ heart.
“They just made a couple more plays than we did” USU head coach Craig Smith said. “I’m proud of how hard we fought. We were down nine or 10 or whatever it was and we gave ourselves every opportunity to win but we just couldn’t find a way to get the ball in the hole down the stretch.”
Though BYU didn’t manage the 95 points it exploded for at home last year against the Aggies, the shooting numbers weren’t bad at all. They made 11 of 28 shots from deep (39.3 percent) and made 47.5 percent of their field goals overall.
“They’re difficult to guard,” Smith said. “They put a lot of pressure on you, they have five guys that can score at all times.”
Two players in particular lit up the scoreboard for BYU — Yoeli Childs and TJ Haws. Those two combined for 36 of BYU’s points and made 15 of their 28 shot attempts, in addition, Haws made four 3-pointers.
Photo by Matt Webb.
On offense, the Aggies were mildly hindered by an officiating error in the first half that wrongly called an Alphonso Anderson 3-pointer a 2-pointer. Presumably, the officials confused the NBA and NCAA 3-point lines that were both painted on the floor of Vivint Arena (Anderson had his toe on the line of the NBA line).
Barcello’s game-clinching three was initially called a two, but was immediately reviewed and changed. That single point didn’t amount to much of a difference as Utah State struggled to get offense even when points were correctly counted. The Aggies had stretches of five straight missed field goals, seven straight and 12 straight throughout the game. Those empty trips could have added up had USU managed to make just a few more.
“I thought in the first half, as a team, we really settled,” Smith said. “We shot 25 shots (in the first half), 13 of them were threes and I thought some of them were not great shots.”
Sam Merrill exemplified the shooting struggles to a degree, going a paltry 2 of 10 from the field overall and 0 of 4 from three on the night.
“He could have forced a few more shots up there,” Smith said, “but he’s just the ultimate teammate who makes the right read every time.”
Bean also had a bit of a rough night, though his struggles came early. The sophomore finished one bucket shy of his eighth double-double of the season with eight points and 10 rebounds, but he missed most of the first half thanks to foul trouble. He picked up a pair of fouls in a 40-second stretch and then the refs tacked on a third with 8:19 left in the opening 20.
“Justin’s got to do a better job — you know he’s an impact player for us — he’s got to learn how to play hard without fouling,” Smith said. “At the end of the day, he’s still a sophomore with not a crazy amount of experience. He’s got to be better for us.”
Despite the struggles from two of Utah State’s stars, there were multiple solid performances. Abel Porter continued his rebound from a poor start to the season by scoring 13 points, second only to Anderson’s 14. Since USU’s game against San Jose State, the junior point guard has shot 11 of 17 overall (64.7 percent) and 6 of 10 on threes.
Along with Porter, Queta didn’t so much inch toward a return to full form as he lept at it. Though still on a minutes restriction per Smith, Queta more than doubled his minute total from 10 minutes in his season debut against Fresno State to 23 on Saturday. Queta made the most of those minutes, scoring 10 points and added nine rebounds and a pair of assists.
Utah State has four days until its next game, a matchup with South Florida on Wednesday in the first of two games played against Sunshine State opponents. USU will play Florida three days later on Saturday, Dec. 21.
Twitter: @thejwalk67