Merrill’s 37 powers Aggie win in season opener
Behind the career night of guard Sam Merrill, Utah State gave new head coach Craig Smith a 101-71 victory over Montana State on his coaching debut with the Aggies.
Merrill had a career-high 37 points on just 18 shot attempts. Those 18 attempts — and 12 field goals made — were also the most in a single game for the Bountiful native. Merrill also made five 3-pointers, tied for second-most in his career. The junior also had four rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block along with five turnovers.
The Aggies jumped out to a 50-34 lead at halftime, making 50 percent of its 30 field goal attempts in the first half along with 16 of 17 free throws. Utah State also crashed the glass hard all game, out-rebounding the Bobcats 51 to 25. Of those 51 rebounds, 16 came on the offensive end. Redshirt freshman Justin Bean and senior Dwayne Brown Jr. both led USU with eight rebounds (four of Bean’s rebounds were on offense).
“When you out-rebound a team by 26 and have 16 offensive boards while shooting almost 50 percent, those are attitude and effort type of plays,” Smith said. “I’m really proud of what we did.”
Utah State played well in almost every phase, especially on defense. Montana State’s one-two punch scoring duo of Tyler Hall and Harald Frey shot a combined 10 of 26 from the floor, netting just 28 points.
When asked about winning his first game as Utah State’s head coach, Smith instead focused on the fact that the Aggies were able to go on the road and get a win.
“We weren’t a great road team last year,” Smith said. “Since day one, that’s a common mantra that we as coaches have brought up. I think our guys took a lot of pride with that. You don’t want to make it a bigger deal than it is, but at the same time you have to take that stuff personally. I took it that way, and I think our guys certainly did.”
Last season Utah State was 2-11 in road games including losses at San Jose State and at Air Force, the teams that finished 11th and ninth in the Mountain West last season (USU finished eighth).
All 12 players that dressed for Tuesday’s game played at least nine minutes with each Aggie scoring. All but one, Abel Porter, made a field goal (Porter made a pair of free throws).
“Everyone came in and contributed in whatever way they had to,” Merrill said. “It wasn’t perfect, we had some turnovers and fouled like crazy, but it was a pretty good start on both sides of the ball.”
This game was the first time since 2012 that the Aggies have scored 100 points in a game since a 105-81 win over Oakland on March 25, 2012. However, the scoring Tuesday was more spread out, as were the rotation minutes. Only two Aggies played more than 20 minutes with just one player other than Merrill reaching double figures (Brown Jr. had 15).
“This was a great team win,” Smith said. “We played everybody in the first half and in the second half, everybody scored in the second half. I loved our fight and our togetherness. We really competed on both ends. How many times do you see teams score 101 points with only two guys in double digits?”
Part of the spread-out minutes came from Smith testing different lineups but some of it was due to several players getting into foul trouble. All three of Utah State’s bigs — Neemias Queta, Quinn Taylor and Ben Fakira — ended the game with four fouls to their name.
Utah State has now won 23 of its last 25 season openers. Tuesday’s 30-point win is the third-largest margin of victory in that span and the largest on the road.
The Aggies will return home to the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum on Friday for their home opener against Hartford. The Hawks lost their season opener at home 75-68 to Central Connecticut. Friday’s game will tip off at 7 p.m. following the women’s basketball game against Northern New Mexico.