USU looks to deflate Highlanders
The last time the Utah State University men’s basketball team played the University of California, Riverside, the Highlanders were in their first year as a Division I basketball team and were throttled by the Aggies 75-45 on Jan. 16 of last year at the Spectrum.
While the Highlanders return several of the same players from last year’s team, USU Head Coach Stew Morrill said the Aggies will face a much tougher UCR squad when USU (12-3, 4-2 in league play) takes to the road to face the Highlanders Thursday night at 8 p.m. at the Student Recreation Center.
“You look at Riverside and you see the leading shot blocker in our league [in Viliamu Morton] and he makes them so much better because he erases a lot of mistakes,” Morrill said. “What has happened with some teams in the league, just like with Morton, these freshmen are now sophomores and these sophomores are now juniors, and they’ve got more experience.”
Only in its first season as a member of the Big West Conference, UC Riverside (6-7, 3-2) has been one of the surprise teams of the conference and has won six of its last eight contests. In fact, the Highlanders have already won more games against BWC foes (three) than they did last year (two).
“They’re much more confident [than they were at the beginning of the season] and they’ve really developed their depth and their substitutes, which is a huge part of developing your team,” Morrill said.
Despite not being a member of the Big West last year, the Highlanders played 14 games against BWC opponents, a key to their improvement against conference teams this year, Morrill said.
“I think it helped them a lot to get familiar with the league,” he said.
One of the players who has helped UCR make considerable strides is Morton. Only a sophomore, Morton is among conference leaders in several statistical categories, ranking first in rebounds per game (9.2), field goal percentage (.634) and a whopping 3.92 blocks per game.
While Morton also leads the team in scoring (12.3 points per game), it is his presence on defense that really makes a difference, Morrill said.
In the Highlanders last game, a 68-60 victory over Cal State Fullerton, Morton rejected six Fullerton shots and held Titan big men Pape Sow and Babacar Camara to a combined 5-for-19 shooting from the field.
“They [Sow and Camara] turned to shoot and he just blocked it,” Morrill said. “Those guys turn to shoot on us and they shoot over us. We’ll try and contest [their shots], but we’re not going to be blocking them.”
Not only is Morton much improved from last year, Morrill said, he has developed into one of the best all-around players in the Big West, despite not being widely recruited out of high school.
“From my understanding, no one even recruited him,” he said. “He’s a local guy that people didn’t know about. What a force he is going to be if he isn’t already, and he is going to do nothing but get better in our league.”
Another player who has been a force for UCR is a player the Aggies recruited – junior college transfer John Galbreath.
The 6-foot-6 power forward is second on the team in scoring, averaging 9.9 ppg, but has been UCR’s highest scorer during league play averaging 14.6 ppg.
“Galbreath is a kid we looked at [recruiting wise] and liked,” Morrill said. “We just had a lot of four guys [power forwards], and we looked at him as a three man [small forward], and I think he is more of a four. We just felt like we couldn’t take another four man.”
For the Aggies, Desmond Penigar and Tony Brown continue to pace the team, averaging 18.4 and 15.9 ppg, respectively.
Penigar was one of four nominees for Big West Player of the Week after scoring 40 points and grabbing 20 rebounds in USU’s two home games last week. UC Irvine’s Jerry Green was selected Player of the Week for the second time this season