Mustangs run out of gas
Following the first ever Cal Poly victory against the Utah State Aggies, 61-58 Jan. 3 in Mott Gym, Mustang fans ran onto the floor and chants of “USU who?” were heard coming from the CP locker room.
“They rushed the floor like they had just won the Final Four,” Aggie center Jeremy Vague said, remembering the tough defeat. “They beat us on the scoreboard as well as physically.”
Sporting the number four on his jersey, it was not kind to him in the first meeting between the teams as he shot 0-4 from the field, 0-4 from the line and racked up four personal fouls.
“I was a no show in the game last time against them,” Vague said.
It was a different story Saturday in the Spectrum, though. This time Vague wanted to show the Mustangs what he was really about. He did just that, leading the Aggies with 10-of-12 shooting en route to 25 points and an 85-53 Utah State victory.
“[Saturday] we came out with a little chip on our shoulder,” Vague said. “We had to have the edge.”
Vague was not the only one who used revenge as a motivator.
“We had a little burr up our saddle over what happened down there,” Utah State Head Coach Stew Morrill said. “That was good.”
Morrill said any time a team can find extra motivation this time of season is a positive thing.
“When they came out and introduced [the Mustangs], they went on the middle of the floor and whipped away Utah State,” Aggie forward Desmond Penigar said.
Penigar finished with 10 points off 9-of-12 shooting and pulled down six rebounds, five on the defensive end.
USU out-rebounded CP 46-25, to break the streak of being on the lower end of the rebounding battle.
“They didn’t have respect for us,” Penigar said. “They beat us and I guess they thought they were better than us.”
That was far from the truth Saturday as the Mustangs did not have a single player record double digits.
Cal Poly center Varnie Dennis was the Mustangs leading scorer with nine points off 4-of-9 shooting. Forward Brandon Beeson chipped in eight points off 3-of-9 shooting. The Mustangs leading scorers, both players fell short of their averages of 15.6 and 12.1 points a contest, respectively.
USU guard Tony Brown used the chants of “USU who?” as his motivator.
“Now they’re regretting they said that,” Brown said.
Brown finished with 12 points and nine assists.
Forward Brennan Ray, who said it was a good thing he was playing well defensively because his offense was struggling, recorded a career-high 10 points.
“Tony and Brennan, two guys that have been around here for four years, were very aggressive in their leadership the last couple of days,” Morrill said. “They wanted to get this one. They wanted to show Cal Poly that we are still around.”
With the victory, Utah State captured sole possession of second place in the Big West Conference race, one game behind the University of California Irvine and a half game ahead of California State University Northridge.
Following Thursday’s 72-64 win over the University of California Santa Barbara, Penigar made a statement declaring the Aggies were going to win the conference.
Even though Morrill would not make the proclamation himself, he wasn’t exactly mad at the statement.
“I can get on a real hard workout program and proclaim that I’m going to look like Brad Pitt,” Morrill said. “That doesn’t mean that’s going to happen. I think Desmond was just trying to be positive. He was excited.”