USU Men’s Basketball showcases talent in scrimmage
LOGAN — Utah State Men’s Basketball conducted its annual Blue versus White game on Friday night, giving fans and coaches a chance to get a preview of the upcoming team.
Team White defeated Team Blue 64-58 with a bit of a twist on Friday. The teams played four 8-minute quarters, but in between quarters some players switched jerseys to give the coaches a chance to see different lineups.
“We were ready to be back out here. We are blessed to be able to coach and play in this great arena, in front of our great fans,” head coach Ryan Odom said. “You know, there was definitely some positive play out there and stuff that we could build upon.”
The first quarter provided the most accurate lineups of what a starting lineup might be this season. Team blue starters consisted of Steven Ashworth, RJ Eytle-Rock, Max Shulga, Trevin Dorius and Dan Akin. Team White started Sean Bairstow, Mason Falslev, Zee Hamoda, Syzmon Zapala and Isaac Johnson.
Some DNPs from the scrimmage were senior point guard Rylan Jones, whose injury was not reported prior, and graduate transfer forward Taylor Funk, who was wearing a boot prior to the game and did not participate.
Despite being out with injuries, Odom said not to worry.
“They’re expected to be back (for game one) for sure. Rylan is progressing well, right now. Taylor’s within his protocol, another week or two, and you’ll have the next steps to it,” Odom said. “He’s not gonna have the benefit of playing in the scrimmages, but he’s been here since April. And he’s been playing with these guys who have been practicing all summer so he has a really good feel as a veteran player.”
In a shocking first quarter, Team White dominated Team Blue 16-8. Bairstow dropped five points and snagged two steals while Zapala provided four points and four rebounds in the eight-minute effort.
Akin went 3-3 from the field, scoring six points and grabbing three boards. Akin, a sixth-year graduate transfer from UMBC and Cal Baptist, has averaged 6.8 points in his career along with 5.7 rebounds in 94 starts with 125 games played.
“Dan’s pretty athletic, you know, he’s strong and athletic,” Odom said. Dan is a fun guy to be around. He’s really good on defense. He’s a guy that can really impact the game defensively and can guard a point guard to a center.”
In the second quarter, after some of the players had switched jerseys, Team Blue made a comeback and won the quarter 19-13, moving the total game score 29-27 in favor of Team White.
Akin continued his impressive introduction to the Aggies going 3-3 again from the field and providing six points.
Quarter three created some excitement for the fans attending. It was back and forth throughout with Blue holding a slight two-point lead. A creative inbound play set up Shulga with a contested corner three-pointer and he drilled it, putting Team White ahead by one. In the last two possessions of the quarter, Akin had a tip-in bucket with 2.4 left and put Team White up 19-17.
Team Blue called a timeout and had a look with their well-designed play. Bairstow heaved it from the baseline to Zapala, just over the fingers of Akin, who found a wide-open Landon Brenchley to send up a three-pointer, that would have won the quarter, but it was just short giving the win to Team White.
Shulga had nine points in the quarter going 3-3 from deep.
Ashworth dropped 12 points and two threes for Team Blue in the third quarter, showcasing he can be a viable scoring option.
With 1:40 left in the fourth quarter, Bairstow stole the ball on a breakaway and threw down a dunk — putting Team White up six — but Team Blue still had some fight in them. Team Blue converted two free throws and stole the ball with 20 seconds left, leading to a nice reverse layup by Hamoda to tie the game at 14.
But again, Team White scored with 2.4 remaining on the clock. Dorius passed the ball to Eytle-Rock on the inbound, who passed it back to Dorius off the pick-n-roll who had a wide-open lane for a dunk.
Team Blue threw the ball to the halfcourt line and quickly called a timeout to advance the ball, giving them another chance to win the quarter.
Blue drew up a play to get Ashworth the ball, who had a nice look from three as the clock expired, but it was too strong and rimmed out, giving Team White a 16-14 fourth-quarter win.
Game winning shot attempt that JUST missed pic.twitter.com/fde7VpCWc5
— Nathan Dunn (@NateDunnUSU) October 8, 2022
Ashworth scored 16 points on 4-11 shooting, going 2-7 from deep and 6-9 from the free throw line. Akin was nearly perfect shooting-wise going 8-9 with 16 points and seven boards.
Shulga led all scorers with 18 points on 5-14 shooting, 4-7 from deep, and dished five assists and had three steals.
The Aggies have been practicing in the Spectrum for some time now, but having fans back for the first time since March was rewarding
“It felt like the atmosphere was back, it’s good to be back in the Spectrum,” Ashworth said.
The Aggies shot a combined 42-104 (40.4%), 11/42 from deep (26.2%) and 19/28 (68%) from the stripe.
“We just need to make sure we get the right shots. We were a little antsy,” Ashworth said. “We are all great shooters and we have confidence in each other to hit shots.”
Odom announced to the fans following the game that instead of playing a non-DI school during an exhibition to start the season — which is typical of many DI programs — the team will instead play in two preseason scrimmages against teams who will not be named. He did call them “high-quality opponents” but said in his interview that the teams cannot be named, but may potentially be leaked online at some point.
Utah State opens up the season at home on Nov. 7 against Utah Valley in the Spectrum.
Featured image by Elise Gottling.