Merrill, Queta rally Aggies past UNLV at home
Sam Merrill scored 14 points in the final 11 minutes to eclipse and close out the visiting UNLV Runnin’ Rebels 69-54 to put Utah State back in the win column. In Addition, Neemias Queta grabbed six rebounds and scored a season-high 21 points.
Utah State desperately needed that spark as, through the first 30 minutes of the game, the team hadn’t produced much in the way of offense and hustle.
“First half, similar to what happened down at their place in the first game (against UNLV on Jan. 1), we let their athleticism and their pressure defense get to us a little bit,” Merrill said.
The two teams traded the lead for most of the first half. Then, with 26 seconds left in the first UNLV took it back and held the advantage all the way until the 10:07 point in the second half. At the halftime break, the Runnin’ Rebels held a slim 29-27 lead, but head coach Craig Smith was not happy with the team’s play to that point.
“Quite frankly I kind of lost my mind at halftime with the team,” Smith said. “We were playing super hard. We were defending very well in the first, but I just didn’t like how we were playing on offense quite frankly because I knew we were better than that.”
The second half started much the way the first half ended, with UNLV taking the game to USU. From a two point lead the Rebels manufactured an eight-point cushion, 35-27, less than three minutes after the break. Smith called a timeout for the team to reset and they responded by outscoring UNLV 14-5 over the next five minutes.
“Credit our guys, our guys had a really good look to them in the timeouts and the huddles and we just had to kind of hit the reset button and refocus and NBA (next best action) and our guys did, they didn’t flinch at all.”
With 11 minutes left in the game, the Aggies made the final move of their rally with an 8-0 that saw Merrill score six straight points and was capped off by a Queta dunk. At that 11-minute mark, Merrill only had six points — Queta 13 — but USU’s top two players finished as the game’s leading scorers with 20 points for the senior guard and 21 for the sophomore center.
“He’s our big-time playmaking,” Smith said of Merrill. “He triggers a lot of things for us. They’re coming at us, every ball screen they’re coming up, basically doubling him and he makes the right read almost every single time.”
PULL THAT TRIGGER SAMMY‼️#AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/9Ld5mLBEa5
— USU Men's Hoops (@USUBasketball) February 6, 2020
Queta drew a lot of praise from Smith postgame. The Portugal native tied a career-high with 36 minutes and had zero fouls on the night to compliment his team leading points and assist totals (he had five dimes).
“He was awesome tonight,” Smith said. “He just had a great look to him all day. Certainly tonight, that second half he didn’t come out until 13 seconds to go or whatever it was. And I kept asking him ‘Are you good? Are you good?’ — ‘Yes coach I’m good.’”
Queta did not play in Utah State’s first meeting against UNLV.
The dominance of Queta and Merrill drove what was an overall offensive explosion by Utah State in the second half in terms of efficiency. The Aggies raised their shooting percentage from 45.8 percent in the first half to 54.2 in the second half. The 3-point shooting took an even more dramatic upturn from 28.6 to 44.4 percent. Merrill pointed to one specific thing that improved the offense in the second half.
No.
Nah.
Nope.
NO SIR‼️#AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/fFIi6OSwOZ
— USU Men's Hoops (@USUBasketball) February 6, 2020
“It was pass the ball,” Merrill said. “I don’t think we have selfish guys but when there’s pressure like that sometimes you get to dribble-y cause guys aren’t open, it’s hard to move the ball. We got a little too sticky with the ball.”
That offensive push led to USU outscoring UNLV 42-19 in the final 17:39 of the game.
USU’s win certainly came at a crucial time. After dropping their second game to San Diego State and with losses to UNLV, Boise State and Air Force, the Aggies could hardly afford to drop yet another conference game if they are to win the battle for second place — a fight being waged by six teams in the Mountain West currently. Utah State had to show toughness, and they did.
“That was a tough game for us and it showed a little bit how tough we are as a team,” Merrill said.
Next up for the Aggies, they will host Boise State. It will be the 55-year anniversary of the night USU basketball legend, Wayne Estes, eclipsed 2,000 career points, and also the night Estes tragically died. Merrill is 21 points away from the 2,000-point mark and 22 away from Estes’ total of 2,001.
Twitter: @thejwalk67