Men’s basketball hosts vengeful weekend
The Aggies took revenge on Texas A&M Corpus Christi 67-58 Saturday night, but Utah State head coach Stew Morrill would have been a lot happier if his team had beaten Saint Mary’s the Thursday before.
“I’m not doom-and-gloom about that game and I don’t want our kids to be,” Morrill said Thursday. “We’ve just got some guys who need to find their way. We were nervous.”
Two men who weren’t nervous to be in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum were Saint Mary’s guards Matthew Dellavedova and James Walker III.
The pair combined for 35 points, and Walker – a former Aggie – had three steals in his return to Logan.
“This is a big win,” said Saint Mary’s head coach Randy Bennett. “This is a tough place to come in and play. It’s an outstanding program, really well-coached. We have a ton of respect for this program. Our players understood that and they were very focused coming in.”
The Gaels dominated from the 3-point line, hitting nine treys. Bennett said it was a funny game because his team was out-rebounded but still managed to win.
“They beat us so bad on the boards and inside,” Bennett said. “It was a good thing we shot the ball well. I thought we were pretty good offensively and that defensively we were good, we just got smashed on the boards. We have a lot to work on, but we’ll start with rebounding.”
The Aggies seemed to recover Saturday.
Utah State had a 21-point lead over Corpus Christi in the second half, but the Islanders fought their way back into the game behind forward Will Nelson.
Nelson hit back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers as part of his 17 points in the second half to make things interesting.
“We let one guy kind of get going and we couldn’t stop him,” Morrill said. “He just lit us up for awhile.”
The Islanders made 10-21 shots from behind the arc, but the Aggies had 10 more rebounds in the game.
Aggie point guard TeNale Roland had no turnovers in the game while putting up nine points and grabbing a pair of rebounds.
“Yes, Coach Morrill was pretty happy,” Roland said. “He said something about it in the locker room, but I want to congratulate my teammates who knocked down shots when I got them the ball. They kept shooting so I give the credit to them.”
Center Jarred Shaw and sophomore Preston Medlin each had 17 points to lead Utah State. Shaw had seven rebounds while Medlin dished out four assists and grabbed two steals.
– tavin.stucki@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @StuckiAggies