Next Level Sports snap Aggies home winning streak
Lack of emotion.
A simple phrase which summed up the feeling of the Utah State University men’s basketball team following the 72-67 loss against Next Level Sports Saturday afternoon in the Spectrum.
“I feel like I let the team down,” USU senior forward Brennan Ray said. “I thought I was maybe a little flat. I didn’t have the emotion I usually provide off the bench.”
Although the loss was disappointing for Aggie Head Coach Stew Morrill, he felt the lack of fire and emotion was even more disappointing.
“I don’t know whether it was because it was a small crowd,” Morrill said. “There should be no excuses. Global [Next Level Sports] had played a bunch of nights in a row and this had been our only game of the week. “
Next Level improved their record to 3-5 with the win over Utah State.
“There was no emotion tonight,” USU junior guard Ronnie Ross said.
Ross contributed 14 points toward the Aggie effort.
Not only was the team emotionally absent from the game, so was the crowd.
“We didn’t get the crowd involved,” USU junior forward Desmond Penigar said. “That’s to our advantage to get the crowd involved and we didn’t do that.”
Penigar added 15 points to the Aggie total.
Senior guard Tony Brown led the team with 19 points, including shooting 5-for-9 and 3-6 beyond the arc.
Ironically for the Aggies, the aspect the team struggled with the most in the 79-74 overtime victory over EA Sports was much improved from a week earlier.
The Aggies shot 17-20 from the free throw line, including a perfect 6-6 from Brown.
Following a three-point shot by Penigar with 11:50 remaining in the game, the Aggies held their biggest lead, 56-41.
It wouldn’t last long though, as Next Level went on a 17-3 run during the next five minutes of play, pulling within one point.
Guard Michael Nurse, who scored all of his points in the second half of action, led Next Level with three three-pointers during the run.
With just over one minute left, center Courtney James put Next Level up 66-65, a lead which the team would hold for the remainder of the game.
“I tell people this [USU] is the most underrated program in the nation,” said Next Level Head Coach Brian Gates. “I think it is a big compliment to a program when you lose four starters and you are still ranked second in your conference.”
It may be a compliment, but Morrill would beg to differ.
“A lot of people are not realizing we are an inexperienced basketball team,” Morrill said. “We lost four starters. We lost five seniors. We are having a hard time getting consistency. We played pretty good getting up 15 and then we just gave the game away. That is a result of our inexperience. We do not have guys that have been down this road before.”
The players understand this.
“We haven’t been in this situation before,” Penigar said. “It’s a learning experience for us.”
Having former Aggies in the house, however, did help the team a little, Penigar said.
“I learned a lot from Shawn [Daniels],” Penigar said. “He’s a smart basketball player.”
Daniels suggested things such as when to set picks, Penigar said.
Daniels led Next Level with 17 points.
Former Aggie Kevin Rice contributed 6 points. Another former Aggie, Marcus Saxon played 14 minutes but did not score.
Current Aggies were also helping the team on Saturday.
“I’m learning a lot,” Ross said. “Tony is like my mentor. He is a role model to me. Coming from a junior college I’ve never been to a NCAA tournament and he has. I listen to him.”
The Aggie loss was the first time the team has lost in the Spectrum since it fell to BYU 82-73 on Jan. 8, 2000.
Despite giving up a 15-point lead, Morrill feels there were some bright spots during the game – having a 15-point lead being one of them. The team also executed well, he said.