No accidental thrashing of Occidental
Anyone who was worried after watching the USU men’s basketball team lose to EA sports last week can breathe a little easier after the Aggies downed ranked Division-III team Occidental College 85-39.
The Aggies jumped out to an early 10-4 lead and increased that to 44-20 by halftime.
“I feel good that we have made a few strides the last 4 or 5 days at practice,” said Head Coach Stew Morrill.
The strides during practice paid off on Monday night. With a big lead heading into the second half the Aggies continued to apply defensive pressure and held Occidental scoreless for a six minute stretch while going on an 18-0 scoring run.
“One of the things we tried to do is hold their percentage down, both overall and from three [point range],” Morrill said. “Naturally if you do that they’re not going to score as many points.”
Utah State held Occidental to 26% shooting from the field and 13% shooting from beyond the arc. The Aggies improved on their shooting from the game against EA Sports by shooting close to 58%.
Aggie forward Michael Earl did his part to help the shooting percentage by going 8 for 9 from the field to finish with a team high 17 points. He also stepped up defensively by recording four blocks.
“We try to make the least mistakes and take a good shot selection”, Earl said.
Other Aggies to score in double figures were Chaz Spicer, 12 points, and Jaycee Carroll with 13 points. Kris Clark led the team in assists with six.
Morrill said he felt like his team came out and showed a lot of improvement and did what they had to do.
“We did what we should do,” Morrill said. “We should beat that team. They’re a good Division-III program but we’ve been a good Division-I program, and if we do what we should do, we beat them pretty handily.”
And that is exactly what the Aggies did.
Morrill said he still felt like the Aggies had room to improve on the defensive end of the floor.
“We didn’t do a very good job on (Sam) Betty,” Morrill said. “He is a good player, and was the one guy who was consistently scoring for them.”
Betty led the scoring for the Tigers with 22 points and was the only Occidental player that the Aggies let get going. All other Occidental players only managed to score 17 points combined.
The Aggies will look to take their defense with them as they travel to Natchitoches, Louisiana to play Northwestern State. The Aggies hosted Northwestern St. last season in Logan in an ESPN Bracket buster’s game. After trailing by 13 at halftime USU came back to win 66-63.
“Exhibitions are done and they served their purpose,” Morrill said. “It’s time to open and get on with the real counters and see if we can grow as a team. I think this will grow as we go. I was encouraged by some things tonight.”
-samabry@cc.usu.edu