Carroll shoots 5 for 7 from behind the arc to lead USU past Gauchos
Four Aggies scored in double figures Saturday night in Utah State’s 80-50 win over UC Santa Barbara in California.
The 30-point win was the sixth in a six-game winning streak in which the Ags have beat their opponent by 24 points or more.
“A lot of guys had good offensive nights,” head coach Stew Morrill said, “and that’s how you shoot 70 percent. It’s kind of unbelieveable to have that good of a shooting night against a team that is leading the league in defense.”
The Aggies shot 71.1 percent for the night, a new record in the UCSB Thunderdome.
“It feels really good to be able to play the way we are right now,” junior Nate Harris said.
After scoring the first two points of the game, the Aggies fell behind the Gauchos. Down 10-4, USU posted 10-straight points to take the lead and hold it for the rest of the game.
Spencer Nelson led all players with 19 points, 11 in the first half. Jaycee Carroll finished the night with 17 points, 15 coming from behind the three-point line.
Jason Williams led the Aggies in the first half, scoring all of his 12 points. At the end of the half the Aggies were up by 18.
Nate Harris, who only had two points in the first 20 minutes, scored the first basket of the second half to put the Ags up by 20 points, 48-28.
“We’ve had a lot of people contributing,” Morrill said. “I do think we’re better and now it’s a matter of going out and showing it night after night.”
For the rest of the second half, the Aggies continued to build on their lead. Their biggest lead came after a basket from Ian McVey with a little less than two minutes to play to put the Aggies up by 33.
“We were really confident tonight,” Morrill said. “Shots fell for us [and] we executed pretty dang well. We felt comfortable and made a lot of shots.”
The Aggies will now return home after their four-game road trip to face CS Northridge on Thursday and Pacific on Saturday.
The Ags lost to both teams earlier in the season – the last teams the Ags lost to before their current winning streak.
“Sometimes people say the best thing for a team could be to get a couple tough losses and I think the guys came together and played real well,” Harris said. “It’s gonna be an exciting home stand this weekend and it’ll be fun to be back in Logan.”
“I don’t very often beg for fan support, but we’ve got to the two teams ahead of us in league and we need the Spectrum rocking,” Morrill said. “These kids quite frankly deserve it after going out and playing this well on the road. We need to have some fun this weekend. I think we are confident and hopefully we can just continue to be.”
-aedumnds@cc.usu.edu