Hot shooting Aggies down Air Force at home
What started as a slow approach from the Aggies ended up being quite the dominant first half of basketball. With seven minutes gone in the game, Air Force was holding their own and were within four points of Utah State. A 14-10 scoreline was the result of neither team being able to find a rhythm and at that point, it looked like we might have another defensive showdown on our hands. But good shooting from the Aggies started to take over and they found themselves in a rhythm. Utah State closed out the half by shooting 56 percent from the field and going 7 of15 from deep. A couple key three-pointers from freshman guard Brock Miller, senior forward Dwayne Brown Jr., and junior guard Sam Merrill sparked the scoring run as USU stretched their lead to 16 points to end the half up 44-28. A 23-6 rebounding margin was probably the biggest factor that propelled Utah State to their halftime lead, dominating the Falcons on the glass.
Coach Craig Smith felt this was a part of their game they really tried to emphasize coming into tonight’s contest.
“We felt like this was a game where we should be able to make our presence felt on the boards for sure.” Smith said, “I believe we were 14 of 25 from the field in the first half and we had seven offensive rebounds. So you miss 11 shots and you add seven offensive rebounds into that, that’s a pretty good equation.”
The hot shooting continued in the second half as Air Force’s first 24 points of the half all came from behind the three point line, which cut the Aggies’ lead down to nine. Utah State also was feeling it from deep, getting off 11 three-point attempts. Utah Stat was led by Brock Miller who had a career-high 12 three-point attempts in the game, making five of them. After the shooting spree Air Force went on, the Aggies were able to limit their opportunities and force them to take bad looks for most of the second half.
Sam Merrill shared some insight on how they were able to shut down Air Force later on in the half.
“They only averaged six made three-point field goals so obviously our gameplan was to keep them out of the paint and force them to make threes.” Merrill said, “That was crazy, I’ve never seen anything like that the way the shot the ball to start the half. But we knew we just had to stick with our gameplan, we had to push up into guys a little bit more, and just stick with what we did and I think they missed their last eight or nine.”
In total, the Aggies shot a season high 26 threes and went 42.3 percent from deep while limiting Air Force to 39.3 percent from the field overall.
Another career night came from Sam Merrill who had a career-high 12 assists to lead the Aggies to go along with a team-high 18 points. Merrill only shot nine times in the game, but made his presence felt becoming a floor general late in the first half that really set the tone for Utah State’s offensive attack.
Merrill spoke on his contributions for the squad and their gameplan after Wednesday’s loss to Nevada.
“Yeah I mean I had zero assists against Nevada, so I had to make up for that.” Merrill went on to say, “Assists mean that guys are making shots and Brock made a lot of shots tonight, Quinn made a lot of shots tonight, and that’s how it goes.”
Freshman center Neemias Queta pulled down a team-high 10 of Utah State’s 39 rebounds on the night to go along with 13 points on a perfect 5 of 5 from the field. Senior forward Quinn Taylor added 16 points and was one of four Aggies to score in double figures on the night. Utah State really thrived as the game went on and the team chemistry started to overflow on the court with all five guys beaming with confidence.
Air Force was determined to keep the game close through the second half, but eventually they couldn’t close the gap and Utah State pulled out with a 79-62 win to earn their first win of conference play. The next challenge for the Aggies comes this Wednesday at home against an 11-3 Fresno State squad.