USU looking for revenge
After having its six-game winning streak come to an end at the hands of New Mexico State last Thursday, the Utah State men’s basketball team will seek revenge Saturday in the Spectrum.
The USU Aggies will host the NMSU Aggies at 7 p.m.
Head coach Stew Morrill said it is odd to see two conference opponents play each other so soon after their first meeting.
“Usually between games, you have a little bit of time,” he said. “It’s fresh on our minds the challenges we have.”
The biggest challenge both Aggies had last Thursday was defense as the teams combined for 179 points.
“Offensive showcase at their place,” Morrill said. “We had too many turnovers. We’ve got to do some things better if we want to win.”
Three NMSU players scored more than 20 points in last week’s contest. Elijah Ingram had 28, David Fisher had 25 and Mike Mitchell had 21. Both teams shot more than 60 percent from the field.
Morrill said it was NMSU’s quickness that caused a lot of problems for his team.
“We’ve got to do a better job of handling their press,” he said. “After that, the biggest challenge we have is trying to guard them off the dribble. They challenge you to guard them one on one.”
In last Thursday’s game, USU set a school record with 20 3-pointers made. The previous record was 13. Jaycee Carroll also set a school and conference record with 10 3-pointers by himself.
Morrill said the fact that his team only has one game this week should be an advantage.
“With only one game this week, we get a chance to work on some other things we have to work on,” he said. “Our rebounding at La. Tech was suspect. We have to rebound the ball better than that or that’s going to jump up and bite us.”
Morrill said the one-game weeks have the potential to backfire, however.
“Sometimes you get to rest and it’s a positive and sometimes you get rusty,” he said. “Hopefully, it’s the first of those two.”
After losing to the other Aggies, USU beat first-place Louisiana Tech two days later in Ruston, La.
“I thought we showed a lot of grit and a lot of character,” Morrill said. “Obviously, we were really tickled after that basketball game. But we still have some challenges ahead.”
During last week’s road trip, Carroll shot 17-for-28 from the field and 15-for-23 from 3-point range for 51 points.
“We felt like he was going to bounce out of his slump,” Morrill said. “He bounced out of it in a huge way. For Jaycee, it’s very important that he gets clean looks. It gets his confidence going. Hopefully we can get him some looks again.”
With a win Saturday, the Aggies can once again pull into a three-way tie for first place with LTU and Nevada.
USU holds the tie-breaking edge over both teams at this point as they are 3-0 against them this season.
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu