Ugly win over Bengals prepares USU for Cougs
It was ugly.
That’s how Utah State University junior forward Desmond Penigar describe the 64-59 basketball victory over the Idaho State University Bengals Wednesday night in the Spectrum.
“It’s a win,” Penigar said. “It was ugly, but it was a win. They were aggressive and we weren’t that aggressive but we got the W.”
Penigar finished the game with 20 points, going 7-for-14 from the field and 6-for-8 from the free-throw line.
Improving their record to 3-0 on the season, the Aggies extended their Spectrum winning streak to 24 games.
“Thank goodness we were at home,” USU Head Coach Stew Morrill said. “We wouldn’t have won this game on the road; we would have gotten beat [by] 20.”
After opening the season on the road with wins over Montana State University and the University of Utah, Utah State seemed to struggle with a smaller Idaho State squad.
“I think for all those Aggie fans that were getting carried away, we brought them back to Earth tonight a little bit,” Morrill said. “Idaho State did a great job. They got us out of sorts, they mixed their defenses. We couldn’t get any rhythm, we turned it over and they deserve a lot of credit, but we showed a lot of our vulnerabilities.”
That they did. The Aggies fought back from a 10-point deficit to finish the first half down by only five, 30-25.
During halftime, Morrill told his team he thought some of the guys were playing tentatively. Some took it personal.
“He didn’t mention any names, but I took it to mean one of those guys was me,” USU forward Chad Evans said. “I knew that they were beating us on the boards at halftime so I had to come out and try and keep the ball alive and get some of those rebounds.”
Evans, who only had three rebounds in the first half, finished the game with 10 rebounds and nine points. The 10 boards sets a career and season high for Evans.
“He’s [Evans] kind of silently efficient,” Morrill said. “I look at the stats at the end of the game and see he has 10 rebounds. I didn’t know he had 10 rebounds. He’s active out there.”
The Aggies pulled ahead of the Bengals with a basket by center Mike Ahmad with 14:55 left in the game. Ahmad scored four more points in the next two minutes to add to the Aggie lead, one the team would not let fade.
The Bengals made a last minute effort to capture the Aggies. Trailing by 10 points with 30 seconds remaining, Alvin Brooks scored five points to pull the Bengals within three.
USU guard Tony Brown made a basket with eight seconds remaining to pull ahead 64-59, securing the victory.
Penigar opened the game for the Aggies, scoring four basket – including a dunk – the first points of the game.
Forward Jeremy Brown led the Bengals with 19 points followed by guard Mamo Rafiq with 10.
Bengal season leading scorer D’Marr Suggs disappointed ISU Head Coach Doug Oliver only contributing six points.
“D’Marr took so many bad shots I could not stand to see him on the floor,” Oliver said.
After defeating Idaho State, the Aggies are now focused to take on BYU Saturday in the Spectrum.
“It [the game against BYU] is just as big as Utah,” Penigar said. “It’s a big game and now we can focus on it. We got this game out of the way.”
It is expected, due to the in-state rivalry, that the BYU game will be a near sellout.
“I can’t wait for it,” Penigar said.
“We haven’t beat them [in the last two years],” Evans said. “Both years we’ve been competitive but they just seem to come through at the end. It’s going to be a tough challenge.”
The Cougars fell to the University of California, Santa Barbara Gauchos 68-58 Wednesday in California.