Men’s hoops unable to hold off no.4 Aztecs in second half
Since last facing San Diego State at home in early January, Utah State went on a journey of discovery, filled with trying lessons and small triumphs.
Whatever the Aggies learned wasn’t enough to translate to a win Saturday in a matchup with the Aztecs, as the hosts pulled away late from USU, winning 80-68 to remain undefeated on the year and all but seal up a regular season Mountain West title.
Utah State did plenty to show improvement from its previous nine-point loss at home — in the first half that is.
Multiple times throughout the opening 20 minutes, SDSU tried to flex its fourth-ranked muscles and pull away, taking leads of 10-4, 20-12 and 24-17. Each time, the Aggies rallied to keep within striking distance, a credit to a more developed fighting spirit.
Eventually that strike came. The USU defense managed to force a cold spell out of the Aztec offense with the home team missing eight of their last nine shots of the first half. The Aggies capitalized, unlike so many other times, by closing out the final 10 minutes of the first half on a 22-7 run.
Senior guard Sam Merrill powered the offensive surge, as he is usually want to. His nine-point first half had the Aggies up 39-31 at the break. As a team, USU boasted shooting marks of 55 percent overall and were 7 of 10 from three.
From there things fell apart on an almost exponential scale. At first, Utah State held on to its lead, holding off mini runs by the Aztecs to stay a possession or two ahead, but then a 10-0 run shattered what lead still existed and SDSU never looked back. Within five minutes of a tied game 54-54, Utah State found itself down 10 points, 68-58.
The major culprit in the case of the disappearing Aggie lead was a deluge of 3-point shooting from San Diego State. Five of the first seven field goals made in the second half by SDSU came from beyond the 3-point line. Three of those triples, plus another layup during the early second-half rush, came via Matt Mitchell, the team’s junior forward who had a night to remember.
With reigning NBA Finals MVP and former Aztec forward, Kawhi Leonard, looking on, Mitchell scored 28 points, his highest total since November 2017. He made a bevy of seemingly unguardable shots on his way to that mark. Overall, Mitchell was 9 of 14 from the field and 4 of 6 from three.
Utah State didn’t exactly do itself any favors either, though. The Aggies dropped from a 70 percent shooting rate from three in the first half to just 18.2 percent (2 of 11) and 36 percent overall. With no offense available, the SDSU lead simply increased without interruption and hovered in the double-digits until the end of the night.
Despite a poor second-half shooting performance, Merrill had a career night in some ways. He tied a career-high with 12 assists while also going 5 of 12 from the field (4 of 8 from deep) for 16 points with zero turnovers and five rebounds for good measure. According to Basketball Reference, Merrill is just the fifth player since 2010 to score 16, get 12 dimes and grab five rebounds in a game while not recording a single turnover.
Utah State entered the game in a four-way tie for third place in the conference, but now falls into a two-way tie for fifth with Nevada. Colorado State, Boise State and UNLV (and SDSU obviously), sit above the Aggies in the standings. CSU and BSU both won Saturday night and are one game ahead of USU.
UNLV will travel to Logan on Wednesday to face the Aggies in a rematch of a stunning Running Rebels’ 70-53 victory on Jan. 1.