No. 15 Utah State soars over UTSA for fifth straight win
Though No. 15 Utah State had to endure a bit of an early scare, the Aggies rallied early to blast UTSA 82-50 to advance to 5-0 for the second straight season.
That early scare materialized at the 12:11 mark in the first half, putting Utah State in a spot of bother. Earlier that very day, the Aggies had risen in the AP Top 25 poll from 17th to 15th, but eight minutes into a matchup with the winless Roadrunners, USU found itself down 16-13.
UTSA had mounted a 10-0 run to surge ahead for its first (and ultimately only) lead of the game. Utah State’s efforts during the 3:32 that run spanned amounted to three turnovers, three missed layups and a bricked 3-pointer. Craig Smith had seen enough of his team’s “effort” during that run and called a timeout.
“We lost our discipline,” Smith said. “I didn’t think we had a purpose on offense. That led to some transition points (for UTSA), where I’m not sure we were busting our tails to get back on defense.”
During the run, the Roadrunners scored four second-chance points. According to Smith’s staff, the other two buckets, a pair of 3-pointers, were the result of transition offense by UTSA and conversely, poor transition effort by Utah State.
“They were just out-toughing us,” Smith said.
That timeout, meant in part to calm Utah State down and reset both offensively and defensively, appeared to do just that because, after that break in the action, UTSA shot 24.1 percent from the field the rest of the way, opposed to 43.8 percent prior to Smith’s call for time.
Key to that defense was stopping the UTSA backcourt duo of Jhivvan Jackson and Keaton Wallace. Last season the two were the highest-scoring backcourt pair in the NCAA at a combined 43.1 points per game. This season, Jackson and Wallace are only scoring a combined 39.6, led by the former’s 25.8, and are shooting 34.7 percent from the field between them. Still, much of the two-day preparation from Utah State went toward stopping those two.
“We just know there’s that potential for them to get going,” USU senior guard Sam Merrill said. “Regardless of their percentages, our goal was to make every shot tough for them and I think we did a pretty good job of that.”
Merrill spoke true as the defensive effort by Utah State on Jackson and Wallace proved entirely effective. Jackson had his worst 3-point shooting game of the season, going 1-for-12 beyond the arc, and 7-of-25 overall from the field for season-worst 15 points. Wallace wound up being just as ineffective, scoring a meager 10 points on 4-of-16 shooting overall with three turnovers.
Offensively toward the end of the first half, the Aggies — using Smith’s terms — found their purpose. Merrill, who began the game by making three straight 3-pointers for nine early points, pressed the Roadrunner’s defense to the edge. Merrill attempted 10 first-half field goals, more than he did in entire games multiple times this season (North Carolina A&T and Denver). Seven of those attempts came from three and Merrill drained five of them, marking just the fifth time since the beginning of last season that he’s made at least five 3-pointers in a game.
“Most of it was just them giving that to me,” Merrill said of his higher volume 3-point shooting. “Tonight they went under quite a few (screens) so I just decided to shoot it, most of them went in.”
Aside from Merrill, a lot of energy found its way into the lineup from the usual energy guys, Justin Bean and Diogo Brito. Bean grabbed 11 rebounds — his fourth double-digit rebounding game of the season — eight of those on the offensive end. The redshirt sophomore became the first Aggie since Tai Wesley in 2010 to have eight offensive boards in a single game
“(Bean) just has a nose for the ball. You can’t explain it,” Smith said. It’s just like right place, right time, all the time. He’s so instinctive and so quick. I mean I looked at him today and I’m like, ‘you got rockets in your legs’ because he just attacks (the ball) vigourously.”
Neemais Queta and Justin Bean (34) celebrate another Bean lay up as a timeout is called during Utah State’s game against North Carolina at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum in Logan, UT on Nov 15, 2019. (Amber French/USUSM)
Brito scored a season-high 17 points along with a season-high seven rebounds and a season-high-tying three steals. The senior guard had three acrobatic plays, first a put-back hammer dunk, then a heads-up steal in the backcourt followed by a two-hand slam and lastly a reverse layup all-oop. Those plays got the arena rocking and the fans on their feet.
“I just wanted to bring energy,” Brito said of his performance. “I feel like my shot wasn’t great tonight so I was just trying to help with anything else that I could. Whether that was getting steals or back-cutting or putting pressure on the rim like coach asks us to do. I try to do things, other things besides just standing and settling for threes.”
Bean and Brito were the two among others who largely contributed to increasing the lead in the second half despite Merrill scoring just four points in the latter 20 minutes next to his 17 points in the first half.
Utah State’s best team effort came on the glass. Three separate Aggies grabbed at least 10 rebounds. Bean (11), Alphonso Anderson (11) and Kuba Karwowski (10). The latter two’s total are both career-highs and are also the first time either have recorded 10-plus rebounds in a game. In total, USU pulled down 55 boards, most by any Aggie squad since they had 56 on Dec. 28, 2013 versus San Diego Christian.
Monday’s matchup ends a season-opening five-game homestand for Utah State. Next up will be a trip to Jamaica where the Aggies will first face LSU (1-2) on Friday and then North Texas (1-3) on Sunday. The Tigers fell out of the AP Top 25 earlier on Monday after being ranked 22nd in the preseason poll and 23rd the following week. North Texas has started the season with a rough patch after a 20-win season in 2018-19 but did take then-No. 25 VCU down to the wire in a 59-56 road loss on Nov. 8.