USU bench players step up against SUU
The Utah State bench got a lot shorter during the 65-62 win over Southern Utah on Saturday night.
After four minutes, forward Brady Jardine — one of two returning players with significant playing time in an Aggie uniform last year — was taken out of the game after suffering an ankle injury.
“When Brady goes down,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said, “we’re out there with a lot of guys who haven’t played ball at Utah State.”
The 6-foot-7, 220-pound senior went 1 for 2 and had a rebound before exiting the game.
In Jardine’s absence, junior college transfer forward Kyisean Reed went 5 for 7 and had five rebounds.
His team-leading 13 points were the first Reed has scored as an Aggie.
Reed said the Utah State bench needs to get involved in the games more, especially now that Jardine will be out for a while.
“I think it’s something we’ve got to get more consistent at,” the 6-foot-6, 215-pound junior said.
Freshman Steven Thornton made 5 of 8 foul shots for another 13 points and had five rebounds — four of them on the offensive end.
“(Steven) played good,” Morrill said. “He did some really good things. We had some crowd-pleasing plays.”
Both Thornton and Reed had monstrous dunks.
Two minutes into the second half, Reed cut the Thunderbird lead to four and got the crowd excited with a two-handed dunk from the left side.
“(Jardine) told me to get big,” Reed said. “He’s got big shoes to fill.”
Halfway through the second half, redshirt sophomore Preston Medlin missed a jumper and the rebound popped high off the rim. Thornton put a hand on the ball at the top of its arc and slammed it in to tie the game at 40.
“Brady is a big part of the offense,” Thornton said. “(We need to) stay focused the whole game.”
Even former Sky View High School standout Jordan Stone had five points, five boards and one block in seven minutes of play.
“Everybody stepped up real good,” Thornton said. “Somebody had to step up and score, and everybody did.”
Utah State’s bench scored 31 of the team’s 65 points, and the Aggies out-rebounded Southern Utah 36-28, including 16-9 on the offensive end.
“He’s going to be out for a while,” Morrill said about his injured starting forward. “(We’re going to) play the guys we’ve got.”
– tavin.stucki@aggiemail.usu.edu