Men’s Basketball takes overtime win
It took extra time, but the Utah State basketball team got off on the right foot on its two-game road trip with a 80-78 overtime win over Santa Clara to hand the Broncos their first loss of the season.
“It looked like we were going to get beat by 30 at the start of the game,” said USU head coach Stew Morrill. “When you look at the stat sheet we did a lot of things well. Shot it well, held them down, outrebounded them, but lots of turnovers. It’s nice to go home and learn from these types of games – especially after a win. We were fortunate to win.”
It was a slow start for the Aggies as they quickly fell behind 19-4 behind hot 3-point shooting by the Broncos. SCU started 4-of-6 from beyond the arc, but missed the next seven. Over the next three and a half minutes, USU fought back to within five.
The lead grew back to 12 as Utah State went nearly three minutes without scoring, but back-to-back 3-pointers from Danny Berger and Spencer Butterfield cut the deficit to 32-28.
The Broncos were scoreless over the final 5:41 of the half, which the Aggies turned into a 12-0 run to go into the break with a 34-33 lead.
Utah State committed 12 turnovers in the first 20 minutes but kept the game from getting out of hand thanks to 10 from Santa Clara.
“This team has got a lot of heart,” said junior guard Preston Medlin. “We got down early, we fought back. That was awesome. We just stuck in there and made a few big shots. Coach Morrill emphasized to us before the game that if we keep their 3-point percentage down and their field goal percentage down, and you’ll have a good chance of winning.”
Things started smoother for the Aggies in the second half as they quickly extended the 1-point edge to eight a little more than two minutes in. Aggie center Jarred Shaw had four quick points to start after scoring eight in the first half, finishing with 15 for the night after fouling out at the end of regulation.
But a chippy Broncos squad refused to go quietly. Santa Clara senior Kevin Foster took over with three-straight steals and four points as SCU crawled back to within four at 57-53 with 7:57 remaining.
The Aggies struggled against the stingy Broncos defense and SCU filled the passing lanes en route to nine steals with seven minutes left and pulled within two.
Turnovers plagued the Aggies throughout the second half, and USU’s 21st turnover led to a three-point play to give the Broncos their first lead of the second half at 63-60 with fewer than four minutes to play.
But Medlin had other plans.
The junior came back with a three-point play of his own: With time running out on the Aggies, Medlin hit the game-tying 3-pointer with 2.4 seconds left to send the game to overtime.
“That was a tough shot,” Medlin said. “There was a little luck in there, but I’ve been working on my shot and it went down for me. It was great for us. They obviously played great defense on me. They played the whole 40 minutes, the whole 45 minutes actually.”
Both teams struggled to get anything going in the extra session, but Medlin kept his stroke and gave the Aggies a 75-71 lead with a 3-pointer. Forward Ben Clifford drew a charge to give the Aggies the ball with fewer than two minutes left.
The teams traded free throws down the stretch before senior forward Kyisean Reed dunked in another two points as the Aggies escaped with the win after a late Bronco trey.
“Everybody did a great job,” Medlin said. “It was a great team effort and exactly what you need to have on the road. I feel like it was a great team defense tonight, we helped out a lot. We held them below their average in points and shooting.”
The Aggies overcame 23 turnovers to escape with the win, while the Broncos committed just four in the second half after 10 in the first half.
Shaw fouled out with a little more than a minute remaining, ending his streak of double-doubles at four, but led four Aggies in double-digits scoring.
Utah State improved to 4-1 on the season with the win while Santa Clara fell to 5-1. The Aggies face another tough road test when they travel to Provo to face in-state rival BYU on Wednesday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m.
-curtis.lundstrom@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @CurtisLundstrom