USU men’s hoops bounces back with 90-64 win
After playing four straight Ken Pom top 100 teams to start the season, the three-loss Aggies were looking for a change of pace. Taking on the College of Idaho — an NAIA school — on Tuesday night, they were hoping to coast to an easy win. But for two-thirds of the ball game, they found themselves in a fight.
The Coyotes got up 45-44 with 17:09 left in the game, freshman Rollie Worster yelled out, “We’re good, let’s go!” and got a steal which turned into a three-point play at the other end for Justin Bean. After that, the rout was on, as the Aggies went on a 45 to 19 run to close out the game and secure a 90-64 victory.
“We needed a game to help us get better, to get some guys some minutes,” said assistant head coach Eric Peterson, who was in his second game on head coaching duties due to Craig Smith’s being infected with COVID-19. “Obviously, the second half was a little tight there for a while, but our calling card was just on the defensive end. They had 12 points in 24 possession in the second half, so we did a much better job defensively and it helped us offensively as well.”
“I definitely think this was the battle that we were expecting,” said Freshman guard Steven Ashworth. “They might not be a Division I team, but they were a team that was ready. They were well-coached, they ran their sets. Defensively, we knew that was a thing we had to get better at, we had to be a more versatile defensive team, so I think later on in that second half we really stepped it up.”
Ashworth finished with a career-high 15 points on 4-7 shooting and seven assists. Beyond Ashworth, three Aggies ended the game in double digits. Junior forward Justin Bean had 21 points on 6-7 shooting, 9-9 from the free-throw line, and had seven rebounds. Sophomore Sean Bairstow had a season-high 11 points, and Worster finished with 11 points as well. The Aggies were able to create havoc defensively, full-court pressing much of the game and forcing 18 Coyote turnovers, which turned into 32 points. Thanks to Bean and junior Neemais Queta, sophomore Trevin Dorious, and senior Alfonso Anderson, USU dominated inside, out-scoring the College of Idaho 40-6 in the paint.
Several USU players played their most minutes of the season. Bairstow played 33 minutes, Andersen played an effective 23 minutes and had nine points and five rebounds. Dorius had nine points and four rebounds in 16 minutes. The Aggie bench had a season-high 37 points.
“Coming off the bench I knew the team was going to need me tonight, especially without some key guys,” said Ashworth. “But I think as I did that and many other guys did that we were able to come out with this victory.”
Junior Marco Anthony, and freshmen guards Max Shulga, Zahar Vedischev, and Karson Stastny were all out for ‘medical protocols.’
The Aggie first-half performance was less than convincing. Despite a major size disadvantage, C of I matched the Aggie first-half rebounding total of 14. USU defenders were jump happy on closeouts, and their lack of poise — along with the Coyote’s effective offensive schemes — resulted in the visitors shooting 7-16 from beyond the arch.
At the 6:39 mark with USU up just 27-21, they started full-court pressing. This made it difficult for the College of Idaho to set up its offense and also sped up the pace of the game helping Utah State turn missed shots and turnovers into easy baskets the other way, including an impressive cross-court pass from Ashworth to Dorious for a dunk. Utah State scored 17 points in the final 6:02 to take a 44-33 lead into halftime.
Out of the gate in the second half, the College of Idaho went on an 11-0 run, behind buckets from guard Ricardo Time and forward Jalen Galloway. They scored 16 points and 13 points respectively for the Coyotes.
But after the Worster steal and the Bean and-one play, the Aggies started to bring more pressure. The defense in the second half was far better, holding the Coyote offense to 9-29 from the field and gave up 19 points in the final 17 minutes. The tenacious defense turned into opportunities the other way, as the Aggies shot 14-25 from the field in the second half, good for a season-best 56 percent. They also out-rebounded the College of Idaho 26-10 in the second half.
“You get stops and that leads to transition opportunities, and I think we’re a very good transition offense,” Peterson said. “When we get a rebound or we get a stop, we have some very good athletes on the wing…so I think that’s what got us going, and that needs to be our calling card.”
There were a lot of positives for the Aggies Tuesday night. Every player on the Aggie bench got minutes, and all but freshman Matthew Wickizer scored. The Aggies shot 26-30 from the charity stripe, much improved from their free throw shooting against BYU. And they had a season-high 18 total assists.
“I think ultimately it was a great team win, a great opportunity for the guys to come together,” said Ashworth. “I enjoyed seeing guys like Liam McChesney, Szymon (Zapala), Matt Wickizer get out there and make some plays. It was definitely fun for us to be able to do that tonight, so hopefully, we’ll be able to keep it rolling into Weber State on Saturday.”