Queta block party helps USU men’s hoops to 85-52 win
Sebastian Mendoza made an ill-advised decision Wednesday night, but in fairness, any Spartan that challenged Neemias Queta did. The San Jose State freshman guard had a lane early in the second half, rose up, and tried to throw it down. But he was met at the rim by Queta, who spiked the ball out of his hands in a volleyball-like manner.
Moments later, Queta decided to get in the holiday spirit by giving the Spartans a dunking tutorial. Collecting a bounce pass from Rollie Worster, he rose up, broke through the contact, and slammed it on Mendoza and seven-footed Hugo Clarkin for the and-one dunk. I guess that was just Queta’s way of saying Merry Christmas.
The junior forward finished with six blocks — four in the first five minutes of the second half — nine points, 11 rebounds, and four assists in just 20 minutes of play; his contributions helped lead Utah State men’s basketball to its second blowout victory over the San Jose State Spartans this week, this time 85-52.
“I thought Queta really patrolled the paint, really impacted the game at a high level,” said Utah State head coach Craig Smith. “I’m really proud of how we played, the effort our guys played with… I thought we were really focused and played connected on both ends of the floor.”
The Aggie offense didn’t quite reach the 20 offensive rebounds that they boasted Monday night but still managed to cross the 80-point mark thanks to effective passing which set up good shots. They went 30-70 (42.9 percent) from the field and 8-24 from beyond the arc and got to the free-throw line often, where they shot 17-25. The Aggies also won the rebound battle 54-44 and had 19 team assists and 13 turnovers.
“Everybody played really good and we just shared the ball,” Queta said. “We’ve been improving a lot on the assist to turnover ratio and I feel that that’s a big key for us to keep getting better.
Freshman guard Worster had a game-high 15 points on 5-11 shooting. Sophomore guard Brock Miller added 12 on 5-9 shooting, junior guard Marco Anthony filled up the stat sheet with eight points, four assists and eight rebounds. Sophomore guard Sean Bairstow came off the bench and had 20 quality minutes, shooting 5-7 from the field for his season-best 11 points.
The Utah State defense brought the intensity all night long. Their on-ball presence — denying passing lanes and staying in front of their defender — along with the Spartan’s complete lack of chemistry resulted in lots of contested shots that did not go in. SJSU finished 15-64 from the field for just 23.4 percent and just 4-20 from the three-point line.
“I thought we defended really well both games,” said Smith. “I don’t care who you play, when you play, you hold a team to 23 percent from the field and 20 percent from the three you’re doing something really, really well.”
Out of the gate, SJSU started the game just 1-8 from the field, and it didn’t get much better. SJSU finished the first half 2-9 from the three-point line, and 8-30 from the field and had just four assists but eight turnovers.
“We made some adjustments on personnel, on how we were going to guard some of the guys,” Smith said. “We made adjustments on a couple of sets that they run that they hurt us with in game one.”
The Aggie offense had success early on getting the ball in the post and then kicking it back out to the perimeter. Queta had four assists, setting up threes for Anderson and Miller — who had 10 first-half points on 4-7 shooting. Wooster, who went 0-6 from beyond the arc Monday night, came out firing, he gathered nine points on 3-7 shooting in the first half.
“Seeing so many double teams and being thrown in so many situations I’ve been able to understand what the team needs from me,” Queta said. “I feel like I’m a really good passer and I don’t want to be selfish, I always want to try and make the right play.”
In the first 10 minutes of the second half, things broke loose. The Aggies held San Jose State to just one made field goal. Neemias had four blocks. Utah State got easy layups, scoring 22 points in the paint as opposed to 12 in the first half.
The team capitalized on defensive blocks, long rebounds and turnovers and turned that into points going the other way. They extended the 17 point halftime run into a 33 point lead (72-46) with 9:07 to play.
“We just wanted to come in and be ready to go in the beginning of the second half,” Queta said. “We probably played our best defense (during that stretch).”
Utah State now gets Christmas week off, before traveling to Colorado Springs to take on the Air Force Falcons on New Year’s Eve and January 2.