Three-game loss streak puts Ags in fourth place
It had been a span of 287 games dating back to the 1998-99 season that an Aggie men’s basketball team had lost three in a row.
After losing Monday night at San Jose State, 70-67, that streak is over.
Playing for the third time on the road in seven days, the Aggies lost to put their overall record to 18-9 on the season.
More importantly, Utah State is now fourth place in the Western Athletic Conference with an 8-4 conference mark.
Just over a week ago, the Aggies held the top spot with an 8-1 record.
“Its like right now we’re afraid we’re going to lose,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said after the game in a radio interview. “We’re feeling the pressure of the conference race.”
Senior point guard Kris Clark, after playing poorly in the loss at Hawaii, responded Monday night with 12 points and seven assists in 36 minutes of play. Clark said the Aggies have to win with defense.
“We have to come out and win the rest of our games in the league,” Clark said. “Whatever we do, we have to bring our defense first.”
Monday it was the Aggies’ post defense and rebounding that was troublesome. San Jose big men C.J. Webster and Chris Oaks had their way down low.
Webster finished the game with 15 points, including a number of second-chance shots. Oaks had a career night with 21 points to go along with 12 rebounds.
“Their post guys dominated us again,” Morrill said. “I said in Logan that our post should be embarrassed, and they should probably be more embarrassed tonight. We were trying to double, we were trying to zone some, we were trying to do everything we could. Meanwhile, our post guys had a tough time.”
Part of the problem for the Aggie post play was the absence of freshman Tai Wesley, who was ejected on a flagrant technical foul just a minute and a half into the game. Apparently, Wesley threw a punch???ATT????/, which is grounds for immediate ejection.
Morrill wouldn’t comment much on the play because he had yet to see the replay, but he did see enough to say it was a dumb play.
“All I know is it’s stupid,” Morrill said. “That’s a stupid play. I don’t remember the last time I had a guy getting ejected. Tai’s got to be smarter than that. He’s a great kid, but he’s got to be smarter than that.”
Morrill did mention the officiating crew was a veteran one, and they looked at the play five times trying to find a way to give Wesley the benefit of the doubt.
“They’re veteran officials,” Morrill said. “They’re not going to eject him unless he deserves to be ejected.”
Despite the loss of Wesley and USU’s poor defensive play, the Aggies were able to climb out of a 15-point second half deficit to cut the Spartans’ lead to three with 8:23 left in the game off of a Jaycee Carroll 3-pointer.
Carroll scored a game-high 31 points, including 18 in the second half. The senior also pulled down a team-leading eight rebounds.
“We kept running plays to get him looks, and it’s almost like you tap the well too much because eventually he will miss some shots,” Morrill said.
From then on, the story was missed chances. Utah State was unable to make shots or hold onto the ball after stopping the Spartans on the defensive end. The Aggies missed three straight 3-pointers as San Jose extended the lead back to eight.
Thanks to the Spartans missing free throws, the Aggies were able to get back into the game once again and gain possession of the ball, trailing only three points at 70-67 with 38 seconds left.
The remainder of the game would be chaotic, as three different Aggie players had chances to tie the game with a 3-pointer. After a long trey by Clark that was off the mark, Carroll grabbed the rebound and took a three of his own from the corner that missed. The long rebound went to Gary Wilkinson, who missed on his chance before San Jose State was able to control the rebound.
“We were in scramble mode there,” Morrill explained. “I thought we could have just kept our composure and hit a two.”
Despite not being able to convert, Utah State still had one last chance when SJSU’s Tim Pierce ran out of bounds with the rebound and 3.1 seconds left on the clock.
Good fortune would not be on the Aggies’ side as Carroll’s inbounds pass intended for Clark was picked off by San Jose State. After a quick foul and a Spartan missed free throw, Carroll had one last desperation heave that came up short.
The Aggies now have four conference games remaining-at home against Fresno State and Louisiana Tech and on the road against Boise State and Idaho.
Boise State leads the conference with a 10-3 record and is followed by New Mexico State and Nevada, who have 9-3 and 9-4 conference records respectively.
“Don’t give up on us. We are not done yet,” Morrill said.”We’ll find a way to get back into the thick of things.”
Utah State now takes a break from conference play and will return to action on Friday, when it hosts former Big West Conference rival UC Santa Barbara at 7 p.m. in the Spectrum as part of the sixth annual ESPN BracketBusters.
The game against the Gauchos will be televised live by ESPNU.
Hawaii 71, Utah State 66
Utah State went to Hawaii looking to pick up a win there for the first time ever.
With 9:50 left in the game and a 14-point lead, it looked like the Aggies would do just that. The Rainbow Warriors had other ideas and put history on hold by outscoring Utah State 28-9 the rest of the game to win.
Carroll led Utah State with 27 points and eight rebound, while Wilkinson added 16 points and eight boards.
Utah State committed 20 turnovers, which led to 24 Hawaii points. Hawaii saw all five of their starters score in double figures and was led by Matt Gibson and Riley Luettgerodt, who scored 16 points apiece. Jared Dillinger scored 14 points.
Hawaii slowly chipped away at the lead before taking the lead for good with 1:05 to play on a 3-point play from Dillinger. Hawaii then made 5-of-6 free throws down the stretch to preserve the win.
-sam.bryner@aggiemail.usu.edu