USU basketball teams put on a show at Aggie Madness
On Thursday night at the Estes Center, the Utah State men’s and women’s basketball teams hosted their annual Aggie Madness event. Both teams held scrimmages, participated in a three-point shootout, and teamed up for the hot shot contest, and the men’s team topped the event off with a slam dunk contest.
In both the hot shot contest and the three point shootout, USU junior guard Sam Merrill came away victorious. It took the assistance from junior forward Hailey Bassett-Meacham to walk away victorious in the hot shot contest, as the duo finished with a team score of 29. However, the three point contest was all his doing as Merrill outlasted junior guard Olivia West in the final round to make it two for two on the night.
Next, the lady Aggies took the floor for a scrimmage which consisted of two four-minute halves. The white team doubled up the blue team by a score of 14-7. The white team was led in scoring by junior guard Eliza West and junior forwards Shannon Dufficy and Marlene Aniambossou. The blue team was led by Bassett-Meacham, who had seven points including one three-pointer.
Megan Nielsen “Just to love the game and have fun. That’s one of the most important things, and winning obviously.” Bassett-Meacham said of the event. “We have a lot of maturity and a lot of leaders standing up…I’m really excited for the season.”
The men’s game opened with a bang. Each team successfully connected on alley-oop passes, with freshman center Neemias Queta putting one down for the white team, followed by sophomore guard John Knight’s jam on the other end.
The two of them would go on to lead their respective teams in scoring. Queta finished a perfect 4-4 from the floor with eight points, three rebounds and an assist. Knight led the game in scoring with 10 points on 5-6 shooting. The white team won by a score of 25-15.
Megan Nielsen “It was better than I thought, I really thought I was going to be nervous but I came out, got my first dunk, and got the butterflies out of my stomach,” Knight said. “This was to see where we are at chemistry wise, because when the season starts there’s no time to know whether or not your chemistry is good or not.”
The evening concluded with a spectacular performance in the final round of the dunk contest, which included Queta and redshirt freshman Justin Bean.
With Queta up first, he carefully lined up five people, laying horizontally, and proceeded to jump over all of them to connect on a one-handed dunk. Bean lived up to the task of going second, as he received a pass of the side of the backboard and cocked back a right handed dunk. The judges scorecards were all evened up after the two dunks, so they went to the crowd. The crowd gave more noise for Bean, declaring him the champion.
“Man, a whirlwind of emotions but all good ones for sure,” Bean said. “I think if he [Queta] had went last, he might have went away with it.”
The men’s team begins their season hosting an exhibition against Evergreen State on Nov. 1 before heading to Bozeman, Mont. for their first game of the season against Montana State. The women’s team will similarly host Westminster in an exhibition Nov. 2 the begin their season in Pullman, Wash. as they take on Washington State.