USU falls at NMS

A school-record 20 3-pointers was not enough as the Utah State men’s basketball team fell to the New Mexico State Aggies 93-86 in Las Cruces, N. M.

Jaycee Carroll hit a USU-record 10 shots from behind the arc, scoring a career-high 32 points, but missed three crucial 3-pointers in the final minutes.

“He was shooting the ball great,” Nate Harris said. “With that being said, we lived by the three way too long. It was good that we were shooting good, but we’ve got to find a way to balance out.”

Nate Harris scored 18 points with three rebounds and nine assists and Durrall Peterson added four 3-pointers, but the Aggie defense was non-existent all game long, allowing NMSU to shoot 62 percent from the field

“Nobody could stop them,” Harris said. “Guys drove around us at every spot. David Fisher pretty much just lit us up.”

Fisher had a career-high 25 points.

USU led 64-53 midway through the second half, but NMSU went on a 21-5 run to take the lead for good. During the run, the Aggies hit only one shot from the field and Chaz Spicer turned the ball over on four consecutive possessions.

“They got some easy baskets,” Harris said. “Giving up that many points in the paint is very uncharacteristic of our team.”

USU shot more than 55 percent from 3-point range. Along with Carroll and Peterson’s 14 long-shots, David Pak had three, Chris Huber had two and Harris added one more. The previous record was only 13.

USU started the game hitting its first eight 3-pointers. The Aggies shot 59 percent from the field in the game.

“When you shoot 61 percent from the field and 58 percent from three, you should win,” head coach Stew Morrill said.

Turnovers plagued the Aggies for the entire game. USU gave the ball away 18 times with NMSU scoring 28 points off the takeaways.

NMSU scored most of its points in streaks. In the first half, it went on runs of 11-0 and 16-2 along with its second half run.

“We’d be up eight or 10 points and it was nothing,” Morrill said. “It would be gone in a minute and a half.”

At halftime, USU led 47-45. That was the most points USU had given up in the first half since 1999 when Weber State scored 49 in Ogden.

USU will now face the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Saturday in Ruston, La. The game will be tape-delayed on KJZZ-TV and will air at 3 p.m.

-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu