Sweet revenge for USU hoopsters
It was the game that almost got away.
Fortunately for the Utah State University men’s basketball team, it was able to hold onto an 18-point, second-half lead and beat the University of California Irvine 62-61, when UCI guard Mike Hood missed a 3 pointer at the buzzer Saturday night in Irvine, Calif.
“For 35 minutes we deserved to win,” Head Coach Stew Morrill said. “For about five or six minutes, Irvine did everything possible to give themselves a chance to win, and we struggled [breaking UCI’s press], and we couldn’t make some free throws and we bobbled that ball and turned it over.
“But, as I told the kids in the locker room, ‘the heck with all that.’ We just got a tremendous road sweep,” he said.
Not only did the Aggies sweep Long Beach and UC Irvine – two teams they lost to on the road last season – Saturday’s victory over UCI propelled the Aggies (18-4, 10-3 in league play) into a first-place tie with the Anteaters (17-7, 10-3) in the Big West Conference.
“We started thinking about this game right after we beat Long Beach,” power forward Desmond Penigar said. “From the get-go, we warmed up hard and we focused hard.”
With the victory, the Aggies were able to avenge their 67-66 loss to the Anteaters Jan. 10 in the Spectrum. In that game, reigning Conference Player of the Year Jerry Green capped off a 31-point masterpiece with the game-winning shot at the buzzer, in the process snapping USU’s 31-game home-court winning streak.
When USU point guard Ronnie Ross missed two foul shots with 11 seconds to play Saturday night, the Aggies found themselves in an eerily similar situation to the one they faced in Logan.
However, USU refused to let Green hit another game-winning shot as the Aggies stopped his dribble penetration and forced him to pass the ball to Hood. Hood’s shot from 3-point land was off the mark, giving USU arguably its biggest victory of the year.
“It would have been a crying shame to have played that well and controlled the game as much as we did for the majority of the game, and then let it slip away,” Morrill said.
While Utah State was dominant for the first 35 minutes of the game, it was Tony Brown who was dominate in the first half.
Brown was unconscious from the field, drilling 8-of-9 shots, including four shots from beyond the arc in the first half as Brown out-scored the entire UCI team, 20-19.
“Tony, as much as we’ve played him, as much as he’s worn down a little bit physically – what a great response from him,” Morrill said. “I’ve honestly grown to expect it from him.”
Brown, who finished the game with 25 points, gave the Aggies a 35-19 half-time lead when he drilled a trey over Green with a couple of seconds left in the half.
“Tony [played like he] had something to prove,” Penigar said.
While the Anteaters were having difficulty stopping Brown in the first half, the Aggies were able to shut down Green and UCI’s second-leading scorer, 7-footer Adam Parada. USU held Parada scoreless, and limited Green to a pair of free throws.
“We played great defense in the first half and we played team ball overall in the first half,” Penigar said.
UCI would rally.
After being held scoreless in the first half, Parada (10 points and 12 rebounds on the night) scored two of UCI’s first three baskets as the Anteaters made a conscious effort to get him the ball.
With the Anteaters focusing their attention on Brown, the Aggies got the ball to Penigar, who scored seven consecutive points early in the half to give USU its biggest lead of the game at 45-27.
Despite being held to a horrific 2-of-13 effort from the field, Green (16 points, seven assists for the game) was able to repeatedly earn trips to the charity stripe, where he went a perfect 12-for-12, and kept UCI within striking distance.
Aggie turnovers and missed free throw’s gave UCI two chances to steal the game at the end, but the Aggie defense refused to fold.
With USU clinging to a 62-61 advantage, Penigar came up with his second blocked shot in two minutes, rejecting a Green shot in the lane after Brennan Ray forced Green from getting to the hoop. In the Anteaters second chance to win the game, USU didn’t even allow Green to take the shot.
Known primarily for his play on the offensive side of the ball, Penigar finished the game with three blocks to go along with 18 points and a team-high nine rebounds.
“[Penigar] had two ways to go, as hard as we’ve been on him defensively,” Morrill said. “He could throw his hands in the air and say, ‘that’s the way I am, I don’t guard well enough,’ or he could try and get better. To his credit, he has worked real hard to try and get better defensively.”