Lack of shooting sends USU men’s hoops home from the NCAA Tournament

Utah State men’s basketball’s specialty is to play in the dirt — relying on defense, rebounding and scrappiness to keep itself in a game, with a good chance to win it. But against an elite team like Texas Tech, this strategy can only work for so long.

You need to get buckets.

The Aggies found that out the hard way on March 19, 2021, in Bloomington, IN at historic Assembly Hall. Utah State was bounced from the NCAA tournament Friday afternoon thanks to an impressive second-half scoring surge from the Red Raiders and a lack thereof from the Aggies.

A 33 to 27 lead early in the second half quickly evaporated and turned into a 65 to 53 defeat for USU, ending the season and crushing aspirations for its first tournament win since 2001.

Texas Tech shot 56.7 percent (17-30) in the second half, went on a 16 to 2 run, and outscored Utah State 42 to 26 in the final 20 minutes while USU shot just 40.7 percent (11-27) during that span.

The Aggies actually shot the ball better for the whole game (44%), as opposed to 41.9 percent from Texas Tech — but their “Achilles hill,” according to head coach Craig Smith was turnovers.

The Aggie backcourt, which includes freshman Rollie Worster and Steven Ashworth, was harassed by the athletic Red Raider guards all afternoon, and the No. 6 seed forced 22 turnovers, killing USU possessions and turning that into 28 points for Tech.

“We knew the turnover battle was going to be a big thing, the two things we (focused on) were being ball tough, being able to make quick decisions, and you have to do that at a high level to get good shots against these guys,” said Smith. “One of the pieces to eliminate losing is taking care of the ball and tonight obviously that was our Achilles hill.”

When the ball wasn’t getting stolen, Utah State got clean looks and had success scoring in the paint; but they could not hit a shot from outside, shooting just 21.1 percent (4 of 19) from beyond the arc.

“I felt like we had more clean looks from the three tonight than we have all year,” Smith said, “We weren’t able to capitalize on it…The bottom line is you play these guys, you’ve got to make some threes.”

Much of those looks were in part because of how the Red Raiders were defending junior center Neemias Queta.

They doubled and tripled the Aggies’ best player all game long, holding him to just eight shot attempts. But that didn’t prevent Queta from being a huge factor in the game, helping the Aggies lead heading into halftime.

He finished with 11 points, 13 rebounds, seven blocks and five assists, becoming the second player in history to record 10 or more points, fiveor more rebounds, five or more assists and five more blocks in an NCAA tournament game.

“He’s a star player, and your star players have to deliver, especially when the pressure is on, and he did,” said Smith. “He ends the game with 11 points, 13 boards, six assists, and seven blocked shots, and not many guys in the world, college basketball, NBA, pro basketball, in the world can do something like that.”

But his superman play was not enough to make up for the offensive ineptitude of the Aggie guards. The five guards that played: junior Marco Anthony, junior Brock Miller, freshman Max Shulga, Worster and Ashworth combined for just 23 points.

USU opened the game to a promising start. Queta had back-to-back jumpers and two assists, Teas Tech was forced to take contested shots, shooting just 2-8 early and the Aggie led by five at the 14:39 mark.

Then the turnovers started pouring in. Texas Tech — which forces an average of 16 turnovers per game — seemed bent to reach that mark by halftime. 13 first-half turnovers turned into 14 of Tech’s 23 first half points.

Then the Red Raiders went on a 14 to 2 run, taking a 19 to 12 lead with 6:01 in the half.

But the Aggie offense got going. Junior Justin Bean was a major factor, hitting a pair of mid-range jumpers. He finished the first half with 10 points and eight rebounds. Anthony had a put-back dunk with 2:14 to play, building a 23 to 20 lead.

Utah State led 26-23 at the half, holding Texas Tech to 28.1 (9 of 32) from the field, and winning the rebounding battle 23 to 13.

“I thought we really defended hard and well,” Smith said. “I thought we really made them earn everything.”

The Aggies opened the second half with some momentum. An Anthony floater and a Miller three put them up 31-25 with 16:49 to play. But then Texas Tech, who had been stymied by the Aggies gritty play in the first half, became unfazed.

Backed by Mac McClung who finished with a game-high 16 points, the Red Raiders went on another 16 to 2 run to lead 41 to 33 with 13:06 to play.

Utah State continued to turn the ball over, and Tech extended its lead to 49 to 35.

But they couldn’t get a bucket.

Worster missed and Texas Tech proceeded to go on a 6 to 0 run and put the game out of reach.

It’s the end of what proved to be a roller-coaster season for the Aggies.

“It’s disappointing we lost, no question, there’s only one team that’s not disappointed at the end of the year and that’s the national champion,” Smith said. “We’ll live, we’ll learn from it, we only have two seniors in our program and there’s no doubt these guys will be back on the floor because we have a bunch of gym rats that love to play.”

@jacobnielson12

—sports@usustatesman.com