USU continues to win at home
The road was not friendly territory for the USU men’s basketball team as it dropped two of its three games away from the Spectrum during the winter break. At home, the Spectrum winning streak was extended to 28 games as the Aggies defeated three Division I-A schools and two Big West Conference foes.
There is no better time to be a college basketball player than during Christmas break, USU Head Coach Stew Morrill said.
Aggie guard Ronnie Ross couldn’t agree more.
“We’re like NBA players right now,” Ross said. “All we do is focus on basketball.”
WEBER STATE 67,
UTAH STATE 64
Dec. 8 at Ogden
The Aggies began the holiday season early, displaying the true meaning of Christmas, suffering its first loss of the season by handing Weber State University a 67-64 victory.
“Have a Merry Christmas [Weber State],” Morrill said. “We played 25 minutes of pretty good basketball, then we fell apart.”
Despite holding a 35-26 lead going into halftime, a bucket at the buzzer by Wildcat Jermaine Boyette was only an indication of things to come.
Stepping up their game offensively, Weber State went on a 14-8 scoring run in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
As the Aggies slowly watched their lead disappear, the Wildcats got the crowd into the game and with less than one second remaining on the clock, unlikely hero Brad Barton, who finished the game with five points, hit a trey to give WSU the victory.
“We’d been winning – we needed a loss,” Ross said.
USU had three players in double figures – Desmond Penigar (19), Tony Brown (15) and Jeremy Vague (11).
Chad Evans finished the game with a season high 11 rebounds.
UTAH STATE 99,
WESTERN STATE 43
Dec. 15 at Logan
Looking to rebound from the loss at Weber, playing the Mountaineers of Western State College of Colorado looked more like a practice than a game as the Aggies came away with the 99-43 win. Morrill was able to get everyone on the team playing time.
“I told them at halftime this is your chance to prove that ‘hey, I should be playing more. You screwed up, you’re wrong coach,'” Morrill said. “I like it when guys take that approach.”
One Aggie who particularly was up for the challenge was freshman Kevin Williams. Williams, a recent returned missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, finished the game with 12 points shooting 5-for-9 from the field in just 18 minutes of play.
Fan favorite Jason Napier even saw some playing time, scoring a bucket with less than two minutes remaining.
USU had five players in double figures – Penigar (14), Mike Ahmad (13), Williams (12), Vague (12) and Brown (10).
UTAH STATE 73,
CAL STATE
NORTHRIDGE 56
Dec. 20 at Logan
Opening Big West Conference play seemed a little too easy for the Aggies as they defeated Big West newcomers, the Cal State Northridge Matadors 73-56.
“We did what we needed to do in terms of rebounding the ball and playing defense,” Morrill said. “If you do those two things, it will keep you in ball games.”
USU led by as many as 26 points late in the second half, but seven points by Ian Boylan brought CSR within 17.
Boylan and Markus Carr led the Matadors with 16 apiece.
Brown, who shot 6-for-14 from the field, 3-for-8 from beyond the arc and 5-for-6 from the line and finished with 20 points, led the Aggies. Penigar also chipped in 12 points.
UTAH STATE 81,
PACIFIC 71
Dec. 22 at Logan
This was one game the Aggies were not going to let get away from them as they defeated the Tigers 81-71.
Last season, the Aggies defeated Pacific 50-38 in the BWC championship game, sending them to the NCAA Tournament.
The Aggies already knew they could defeat the Tigers: more importantly, they wanted to stop the trash talking.
“I feed off of people talking trash,” Ross said. “There was a lot [of it]. We talked after the game, who won? Who got the W?”
Ross, although not involved in the battle last season, finished the game with 10 points, shooting 2-for-3 from beyond the arc.
“I just wanted to shut those guys up,” Penigar said. “They said Tony [Brown] and me weren’t going to score at the beginning of the game. That’s just foolish.”
That it is.
The Aggies two go-to-guys, Penigar and Brown, finished with 26 and 20, respectively.
Although Penigar is dominating the game offensively, he is struggling defensively.
“I work on it every day,” Penigar said. “It don’t seem like I’m getting better at it, but I am. The coaches say I’m getting better at it, but it doesn’t seem like it. I’ve got to work on it. It’s going to come.”
GOSSNER FOODS
CLASSIC
UTAH STATE 74,
CENTENARY 59
Dec. 28 at Logan
Despite playing a disappointing first half, the Aggies defeated the Centenary Gents 74-59 in game two of the annual Gossner Foods Classic to move on to the championship game.
“In the second half we came out and played much better,” Morrill said.
Against Pacific, Penigar knew his offense was going well and he was struggling with his defense. Against Centenary, nothing seemed to go down. For the first time all season, Penigar was held scoreless in the first half of play.
“Desmond just missed shots,” Morrill said. “It was nice to get him some baskets down the stretch at the end of the second half. We are going to have nights where we can’t just rely on Tony or Desmond.”
Penigar finished the game with seven points. Brown, who shot 5-for-5 from three-point land, finished the game with 25.
Aggie Calvin Brown saw an unusual 13 minutes of playing time as Thomas Vincent sat out due to missing the practices prior to the game because of missing his flight back to Logan following Christmas.
“It’s encouraging to know Calvin can go in there and play for us when we need that kind of look,” Morrill said.
Andrew Wisniewski led the Gents with 15 points.
Idaho State defeated Birmingham Southern 59-55 in game one of the Classic.
UTAH STATE 74,
IDAHO STATE 56
Dec. 29 at Logan
The Aggies suffered the curse of the first half for the second night in a row but were able to overcome as they defeated the Bengals 74-56 in front of a record 7,347 fans at the Gossner Foods Classic.
“At least we’re playing real well the second half,” Morrill said.
Penigar had a considerably better night, finishing with 17 points and six defensive rebounds.
Brown led the Aggies with 19 and Evans finished with 12. Ross finished with a career high 10 assists and only one turnover. Vague came away with 11 boards, including eight defensive rebounds.
As expected, Brown was named MVP for the Classic. Aggies Penigar and Vague were named to the All-Classic Team as well as Jeremy Brown (Idaho State), Wisniewski (Centenary) and Rashard Willie (Birmingham Southern).
“It’s nice that I got it,” Brown said. “But you could have easily given it to [anyone].”
As usual, Morrill was thoroughly impressed with Brown’s performance.
“He’s playing very confident, knock on wood,” Morrill said. “He just feels so comfortable out there. He certainly deserved the MVP award.”
CAL POLY 61,
UTAH STATE 58
Jan. 3 at San Luis Obispo
For the second time over the winter break they lost a close battle on the road as the Aggies dropped their second game of the year, 61-58 to California Polytechnic University.
With the victory, the Mustangs defeated the Aggies for the first time in school history after dropping the first seven games in the series.
“It showed that they’re a much improved team,” Morrill said. “They were the aggressors tonight; they were hungry.”
Despite receiving huge performances from Brown (26 points) and Penigar (23 points, 13 rebounds), the rest of the team struggled as Evans (5 poin
ts) and Mike Ahmad (2 points) were the only other players to score.
“Credit them, they did a better job than we did tonight,” power forward Brennan Ray said. “We’ve got to have everyone ready to come out and play.”
Leading the way for Cal Poly was senior small forward David Henry. Henry drilled his last five 3-pointers, scored 20 points and hit what turned out to be the game winning shot on a fade away jumper with 29 seconds left in the game.
UTAH STATE 60,
UCSB 56
Jan. 5 at Santa Barbara
Playing the preseason favorite in the BWC and coming off a 61-58 loss to the Cal Poly Mustangs, coach Morrill said USU would find out a lot about its character against the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Fortunately for the Aggies, they learned the team had plenty of it as the Aggies defeated UCSB 60-56 at the Thunderdome.
“We said we would find out what we were made of [after the Cal Poly loss] and it’s encouraging to see that we’ve got a little charter and we’ve got a little toughness,” Morrill said.
Not only did the Aggies (11-2, 3-1 in the BWC) show the rest of the conference they are still a force to be reckoned with, Morrill picked up his 300th career victory, 82nd as an Aggie.
Unlike the Cal Poly game, Saturday’s showdown against the Gauchos was a complete team effort – especially defensively. USU held UCSB to a horrific 27.3 percent shooting in the second half while shooting 46.7 percent against one of the top defensive teams in the country.
“We had to come in here and show everybody you can’t count the defending champions two times in a row out,” Ross said.
After being held scoreless against the Mustangs, Ross drilled three shots from behind the arc en route to 11 points. Penigar led the Aggie offense with 19 points on 9-of-17 shooting from the field.
Despite being limited to 12 points, senior shooting guard Brown was a force, picking the Gauchos defense apart with seven assists and going a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe. Brown’s two free throws with seven seconds left effectively put the game away.
The Aggies will be back in the Spectrum Thursday to host Big West Conference opponent University of California, Irvine.
The Aggies defeated the Anteaters 56-51 in the last match-up between the teams.
The unusual 9:05 p.m. start will be aired on ESPN2.
Aggie guard Mike Stowell dribbles the ball during the game against Big West Conference for Pacific. The Aggies won 81-71. (Zak Larsen )