Medlin, Thoseby fuel hot-shooting Ags over Bengals
POCATELLO, Idaho — The Utah State men’s basketball team looked to be in a tough situation after a loss against Texas A&M, Corpus Christi in overtime Tuesday. The Aggies shot 33 percent from the field against the Islanders and never really got into a rhythm offensively.
Sophomore redshirt Preston Medlin seemed to struggle the most, as he didn’t score at all against Corpus Christi and only put up two attempts.
Medlin and the Aggie offense made a complete turn around against the Idaho State Bengals Saturday. Medlin scored a career-high 26 points on 8 of 11 shooting from 3-point range and 9 of 13 shooting overall to lead the Aggies over the Bengals 75-62 at Holt Arena.
“Our backs were against the wall a little bit,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said. “We’ve been in somewhat of a funk and struggling to get a lot done, so hopefully this win will help us a little bit.
“I wouldn’t have bet on us coming up here and winning. You could probably tell that with the way I’ve talked about the team lately. We’ve just been in a funk. We talked about it and said , ‘Let’s try to get out of it. We’re going to eventually get out of it, so let’s try and do it tonight.’ They were in a good frame of mind going in and responded.”
USU hit 13 3-pointers on the night, which ties for second most in school history. The Aggies hit 13 treys last season against Montana Western.
Medlin’s eight 3-pointers is the second most in school history and the most since Jaycee Carroll went off for 10 3-pointers against New Mexico State during the 2005-06 season.
“It’s a much easier game when you make some shots,” Morrill said. “Obviously we had some guys make a lot of shots tonight. That was the whole thing. We executed better than we have, and we made some shots.
Adam Thoseby, who got his first career start as an Aggie, finished with a career-high 16 points on 4 of 6 shooting from 3-point distance and 6 of 8 overall. He spurred an early 8-0 Aggie run with a 3-pointer on the team’s first possesion of the game.
“I think the team’s confidence just finally came in to play,” Thoseby said. “We passed the ball well and played really unselfishly and hit shots like we should.”
Medlin and Thoseby combined for 25 of USU’s 32 first-half points to keep USU ahead of Idaho State.
“You go for zero in one game and 26 in the next — that’s quite a contrast,” Morrill said of Medlin. “He’s at his best when he’s excited and having fun playing basketball. He’s had his dobber down a little bit, and it helped him to get a few shots down. You could see he was having fun. He got a lot of looks out of our offense and boy, he was feeling it.”
Junior guard Melvin Morgan led Idaho State with 24 points, most of which came from the free-throw line, and his scoring kept the Bengals within striking distance for much of the first half.
Idaho State responded to USU’s early run with a run of its own and a layup from Kenny McGowen tied the game at 20-all with about four minutes remaining in the first half.
Medlin scored the final eight points of the half for USU, including a pair of 3-pointers, to give USU a 32-27 lead heading into halftime.
USU’s flurry of 3-point shooting helped the Aggies gain some breathing room to begin the second half. Medlin hit three 3-pointers in a row, and senior guard Brockeith Pane hit his only trey of the night to give USU a 44-38 lead.
USU pushed its lead to double digits on a 3-pointer from Thoseby and held a double-digit lead for the remainder of the game.
A pair of free throws from freshman forward Ben Clifford, who got his first career start and finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, pushed the Aggie advantage to its largest of the night at 75-56, with just under three minutes remaining.
Idaho State made a push to cut the deficit, scoring the final six points of the game.
Pane, one of five Aggies to finish with double-figure scoring, led the Aggies with nine assists.
“You’ve got to feel good about Ben Clifford going in and battling — a freshman in his first start and he played a lot of minutes,” Morrill said. “I thought he did a commendable job. Obviously Preston shot lights out, and I thought Brock’s overall floor game was really good.”
USU finished the game shooting 57 percent from the field and 68 percent from the 3-point line, while holding Idaho State to 16 percent from the 3-point line and 32 percent from the field.
Idaho State scored nearly half of its points from the the free-throw line, hitting 25 of 30 attempts, while USU made 10 of 16 free-throw attempts.
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu