Missed chance
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Unfortunately the bad times were just too much to overcome.
The Utah State Aggies lost to the New Mexico State Aggies in Las Cruces New Mexico, 76-73, Thursday night.
In the first half the Aggies team struggled to score and put any runs together.
In the second half it was a completely different Utah State Aggie team – a much better one. However, they couldn’t quite overcome the deficit that they had put themselves into.
“We have no reason to feel sorry for ourselves,” Head Coach Stew Morrill said. “We didn’t come out and play two halves. The first half was extremely disappointing. We came back but ended up short. We need to learn that we didn’t play two halves, and if we don’t play two halves at Louisiana Tech we won’t win.”
“We didn’t play a good first half,” Aggie center Stephen Ducharme added. “We gave ourselves a better chance in the second half. We did a good job making a comeback, just couldn’t get it done.”
The Aggies trailed by 20 in the opening minutes of the second half but fought their way back and got themselves back into the game.
Down by one with seven seconds to go, Jaycee Carroll, the player whose hands Aggie fans want the ball in with the game on the line, dribbled the ball off his toe and out of bounds.
Although the night ended bad for Aggie star Jaycee Carroll, it wasn’t all bad for the conference’s leading scorer.
Jaycee Carroll finds a way to score against New Mexico State. Thursday night was no different as he scored 30.
In the first meeting between these two teams this year, Jaycee Carroll scored a Spectrum record 44 points while the Utah State Aggies beat the New Mexico State Aggies. Carroll’s previous career high of 32 also came against New Mexico State last year in Las Cruces.
Stephen Ducharme put together a good game, scoring 18 points, but missed the game-tying foul shot at the end of the game. Chaz Spicer ended the game with 13 points.
The Utah State Aggies came out and made the first four points, but then went cold. When the Utah State Aggies went cold, the New Mexico Aggies got hot. They went on a 23-7 run to take a 12 point lead.
Then Jaycee started to bring the Aggies back into the game, making three straight 3-pointers, cutting the lead down to five.
Then New Mexico went on a run of their own and built a 17 point lead going into the half. They lead 43-26 at the midway mark. Utah State only shot 31 percent from the field in the first half. New Mexico shot 67 percent, 16 of 23, in the first half and had five different player score while USU only had three players score in the first half. Carroll had 15 points and Stephen Ducharme had eight. Chaz Spicer also had four points in the half.
“It was just a free for all early,” Morrill said. “We couldn’t get a stop. But then we decided to dig our heels in and play in the second half.”
In the opening moments of the second half New Mexico scored the first three points and were enjoying a 20 point lead.
Then the Aggies started to play. They went on an eight to zero run to make it 35- 47. For the next few minutes the two teams traded baskets, but the Aggies managed to chip away the lead. They brought the game to 64-60.
“We were getting our butts kicked in the first half so we had to come out and give them some heat,” Stpehen Ducharme said. “They made a lot of turnovers, and the pressure helped out a lot.”
New Mexico pushed the lead back to nine, leading 74-65, with 4:03 left in the game. Then Durall Peterson hit a three to cut the lead to four. Then a Carroll assist to Steve Ducharme cut the lead to two after being down by 20 at the beginning of the second half.
-wwm@cc.usu.edu