USU men going strong in CIT post-season action
USU 75, CSUB 69
Junior forward Kyisean Reed finished with 16 points, eight rebounds, three blocks and three steals to lead the Aggies over the Cal-State Bakersfield Roadrunners 75-69 at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
“This game was a lot more up and down, there was a lot more space on the floor, so I was able to read a lot more than I usually do,” Reed said. “And I was able to anticipate a lot of things. It is good to play at home, and it is good that we have earned another home game on Saturday night.”
Roadrunner junior guard Zach Lamb, who finished with a game-high 31 points, hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead 63-61 with 4:28 to play after USU led by double digits most of the game.
Senior forward Morgan Grim gave USU its largest lead of the night with his third and-1 play of the game, but a crucial error by the senior in the waning minutes nearly cost USU the game.
Grim was called for an intentional foul on senior forward Rashad Savage on a fast-break layup, after Aggie senior guard Brockeith Pane coughed up one of his six turnovers at midcourt.
The Roadrunners’ press gave USU problems all night.
“Well, it got real interesting down the stretch in the second half,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said. “We had a chance, we missed three 3’s to go up 17 and maybe have the chance to put the game away. To their credit, they just kept pressing and kept coming at us, and we had some not real smart turnovers, but we got out of there with a win. We will look forward to playing on Saturday.”
USU responded on the ensuing possession with a layup by Grim and held on for the victory.
“We just kept working hard out there,” Medlin said. “We just kept battling out there. We knew it was going to be a fight, and we knew they were a good team.”
USU 76, Idaho 56
Make it two consecutive postseason wins for the USU men’s basketball team.
Reed scored 15 points and pulled down 5 rebounds to lead USU over the Idaho Vandals 76-56 in the second round of the CIT.
Both teams struggled offensively in the first four minutes of the game, but the Aggies used 25-7 run over a 13-minute span to build a lead they did not relinquish.
“I thought that we came out with some energy and at this time of the year, that is critical,” Morrill said. “Obviously, it is easier when you are at home, but it’s not always a guarantee. I was just really pleased with our guys and how they approached the start of the game and basically built us a cushion we had the whole night.”
Reed, who had 10 points at half, started the run with a layup in the post, and USU never trailed the remainder of the game.
Idaho’s first field goal of the game came on a layup five minutes into the contest from junior forward Wendell Faines. USU held the Vandals scoreless for the next six minutes until sophomore guard Stephen Madison hit a baseline jumper with the shot clock winding down.
“We were hustling out there,” Medlin said. “We were getting rebounds, and we were making them miss shots because of our energy. And that is what coach emphasized.”
USU shot 51.9 percent from the field and 66.6 percent from 3-point land during the first half, and limited Idaho to 27.3 percent from the field and 16.7 percent from 3-point range.
“We were really aggressive defensively in the first half,” Morrill said. “We had a lot of deflections and they were having a hard time scoring and that is what got us a nice halftime lead.”
Idaho went on several small runs during the game, but the after the first half, USU never let its lead be less than 20.
“We had a lot of intensity on the defensive end and I think that halted their runs,” USU freshman forward Ben Clifford said. “The big thing for us this game was to stop them in transition and we had three guys back instead of two.”
After scoring one point against Bakersfield, USU’s reserves scored 23 points on the night with Clifford scoring eight points.
“Everybody was involved,” Morrill said. “I told them before the game, ‘You are either going to be excited and ready to play or you’re going to be completely flat. You’ve got to decide what you want to be.’ To their credit, they wanted to play and that’s how they’ve been since we got beat in the (WAC) tournament.”
USU shared the ball particularly well finishing with 21 assists. Senior guard Brockeith Pane notched a game-high 11 assists to one turnovers and chipped in seven points.
USU hosts Loyola Marymount University from the West Coast Conference on Wednesday at 7 p.m. as part of the CIT quarterfinal matches.
– ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu