Carroll breaks scoring record as Ags roll
The Shot didn’t come until almost seven minutes had passed in Saturday night’s game against Idaho.
Aggie senior Jaycee Carroll curled off a screen just above the 3-point line on the left corner of the court-as he’s done hundreds of times before.
With an Idaho Vandal defender right in his face, Carroll’s shot bounced twice before falling through the net to give him Utah State’s all-time scoring record, followed instantly by an near ear-damaging applause from the sellout crowd.
“There’s definitely something to say about that, having a soft touch on the rim, and luckily the ball bounces around and drops in sometimes,” Carroll said. “I’d rather not hit the rim, but you can’t do that every time.”
Carroll ended with 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting and now has 2,147 points as an Aggie.
His performance, along with Tai Wesley’s 23 points and Gary Wilkinson’s 13 rebounds, propelled Utah State (14-5, 4-0 in Western Athletic Conference games) past the Vandals for a 79-64 victory.
“Obviously we had a little extra motivation with Jaycee’s thing,” Aggie head coach Stew Morrill said. “The last thing any of us wanted was for him to break the record at home with a loss. So, those two things are done-his deal, my deal-now we can move on with the season.”
Just after the game ended, Carroll was honored near mid-court by the former Aggie career points leader, Greg Grant, athletic director Randy Spetman and USU president Stan Albrecht. A five-minute video was put on the jumbotron recounting Carroll’s accomplishments.
“I was really glad to see (Grant) here,” Carroll said. “I thought it was really cool of him to come back after 25 years or however long it’s been since he played and be here for this night. For him to come over and congratulate me and give me a hug, everything about that was very memorable to me and one of the things I’ll remember most about tonight.”
As for the game, Utah State crushed Idaho (4-13, 1-5 in WAC) in more than a few categories. One of the foremost of those was rebounding, where the Aggies enjoyed a 35-19 advantage.
“We have (USU assistant) coach (James) Ware just harping on us everyday, every timeout, ever second of the game (to rebound),” said Wesley, who recorded four boards.
Utah State also made 60 percent of its field goals as opposed to the Vandals’ 44 percent, drained 62.5 percent of its 3-pointers to the Vandals’ 40 percent; converted 84 percent of its free throws while the Vandals only put 60 percent of them in.
Morrill was quick to compliment the Vandals’ obvious improvement from a season ago.
“They came ready to play and at first we couldn’t get them stopped,” Morrill said. “We had a hard time with that all night. Their personnel has improved. I think they’re running great stuff. They’re just a lot better team than they were a year ago, and I know that’s their goal.”
“Offensively, we were pretty good,” Morrill said. “We played real hard and rebounded the ball. That helped us. The rebound margin was a big factor in the game and I thought we played pretty well offensively other than turning it over too much. We were a little loose for the basketball.”
For the majority of the first 10 minutes the Vandals held the lead, going up by as many as six.
The Aggies snapped out of it and went on a 12-5 run to take a 34-27 lead with 6:49 left. The Vandals responded with a 3-pointer on the next possession, but after that neither team scored a point until the 3:04 mark.
The Aggies stretched their advantage to 12 points thanks to a solid 59.3 percentage on field goals, 57.1 percent from beyond the arc, and 81 percent from the free-throw line.
The Aggies will take their nine-game winning streak (eight of which came at the Spectrum) on the road, where they have won two games (one on a neutral court).
The most recent contest away from the Spectrum was an 88-66 win over Cal State Bakersfield Dec. 8.
“We were not very good on the road early,” Morrill said. “The last time we played on the road we played very well, but we’re playing against better competition in the WAC. But it’s a nice challenge for us and we’re excited to be where we’re at.”
-samuel.hislop@aggiemail.usu.edu