Titans stampede Aggies
Heading into its road trip against the University of California, Riverside and California State University at Fullerton, Utah State University Head Coach Stew Morrill said there are no easy road victories in the Big West Conference.
He was right.
CSF power forward Pape Sow scored 20 points, including a crucial 3-pointer late in the second half, and the Titans outscored the Aggies 19-4 to end the game as Cal State Fullerton notched its first BWC victory of the year, shocking USU 65-51 Saturday night in Titan Gym.
With the loss, the Aggies dropped to 13-4 (5-3 in BWC play) and now find themselves in third place in the Big West.
“They [the Titans] were hungry,” Morrill said. “They’ve kind of been snake bit, not getting a couple of wins they could have gotten. They had a lot more energy than us, and they did what they needed to do to win.”
While Morrill had several compliments for the Titan players, two words spoke volumes when he talked about the Aggies’ performance – “we stunk.”
“We, quite frankly, I thought we stunk,” Morrill said. “Tonight, we just didn’t have anybody play good.
“There’s not one guy on our roster that played good,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to win when you don’t have one guy play well.”
After shooting a respectable 43 percent in the first half, the Aggies shot a horrific 25 percent in the second, hitting only 6 of 24 shots in the second stanza.
On the flip side, the Titans (4-12, 1-6 in league play) hit more than 56 percent of their shots in the second half. Ranked second to last in the Big West in field goal percentage (.403), CSF hit nearly 50 percent (49 percent) of its shots against the Aggies.
“We gave a really poor shooting team 49 percent [shooting from the field], so obviously we didn’t guard well,” Morrill said.
Trailing 32-27 at the half, Cal State Fullerton jumped out of the gates quickly, outscoring USU 14-7 to begin the half behind the strong play of Titans Brandon Campbell and Kevin Richardson.
The duo scored 12 of CSF’s 14 points during the span, with Richardson giving the Titans a 41-39 lead on a breakaway layup, their first lead since a 4-3 advantage early in the first half. Richardson and Campbell combined to score 19 points in the second half, matching USU’s second-half output.
USU’s 19-point second half marked its lowest scoring output in a half this year.
“We came out [of the locker room] and were as flat as can be,” senior guard Tony Brown said.
Despite getting off to a rough start in the second half, the Aggies were able to stay in the game, taking their last lead of the game (47-46) on Brown’s second consecutive trey.
However, it wouldn’t last.
A Sow basket gave the Titans the lead for good, but it was a basket of his a couple of minutes later that took the wind out of USU’s sails.
Clinging to a 53-49 advantage late in the game, Sow drilled a 3-ball with the shot clock winding down. Free throws by Campbell and Sow and a Campbell dunk later, CSF had its first double-digit lead of the game (60-49).
When asked about USU’s inability to score during crunch time, Brown said the problem started well before the game did.
“That just comes down to execution problems, execution and maturity,” he said. “We just didn’t have it. We didn’t have it yesterday in practice and we obviously didn’t have it tonight in the second game.”
In addition to Sow’s 20 points, three other Titans finished with double digits in scoring to compliment a balanced Titan attack. Richardson (11) and Campbell (14) were joined in double figures by point guard Derick Andrew, who scored eight of his 11 points in the first half.
Leading the way for USU was Brown (12 points) and Desmond Penigar (17 points, nine rebounds). Unfortunately for the Aggies, Brown and Penigar shot a combined 10 for 32 from the field. Power forward Brennan Ray tied his career high with eight points.
Perhaps most frustrating for Morrill was the Aggies’ inability to put together back-to-back solid games.
“We need to learn to play [well in] consecutive games,” he said. “We can’t do that right now.”