USU men’s hoops falls to Boise, despite career night From Queta

Neemias Queta’s career-high 32 point performance on Wednesday night could’ve been one for the ages. But Utah State shot 3-16 from three-point land and couldn’t get the necessary stops defensively down the stretch, making the Portuguese big man’s big night all for not.

The Aggies lost the game to Boise State 79 to 70, relinquishing control of first place in the Mountain West and missing the opportunity for an NCAA tournament resume-building victory.

With 5:06 left in the game, Aggie junior Marco Anthony hit a tough fade-away jumper, shaving a Boise St. lead to 65-64. From then on it was all Broncos. Junior Marcus Shaver Jr. made a deep three and followed it with an and-one layup. Just like that, it was a seven-point game with 4:10 to play, a lead the Aggies failed to cut into.

“They made some big shots,” said USU head coach Craig Smith. “We had too many defensive breakdowns, specifically in that second half. It felt like we just couldn’t stop them…I don’t know if we ran out of gas or lost some discipline but (Boise St) scored 28 points on the (final) 18 possessions.”

A failure to impose their will late defensively was a fatal blow because the Aggie offense was too one-dimensional to keep pace. Queta collecting the ball on the low block and dunking it or putting up a hook shot seemed to be the only thing going right.

Junior Justin Bean and Anthony pitched in 10 and 11 points respectively but after Anthony’s jumper, nobody besides Queta could make a basket. USU’s best shooter, junior Brock Miller, was 1-6 from the field for just two points. Freshman Steven Ashworth, who started in place for the injured Rollie Worster, went 1-5 for three points.

Beginning the game, the rust from a two-week layoff from playing showed for Utah State. The Aggies started just 2 for 6 from the field and had two turnovers, struggling to find their footing. Boise State won the battle down low early, outscoring the Aggies in the paint 14 to 6 in the first ten minutes and led 20 to 12 with 10:23 to play.

USU switched to a hybrid two-three zone in an effort to shrink the floor and keep the Broncos in check. The switch seemed to shut down the interior scoring and helped the offense get started as well.

Sophomore Sean Bairstow hit a huge three to cut the lead to five; and on the ensuing possession, shuttled the ball to Queta, who slammed it down to make it a one-possession game. USU would tie the game at 22 apiece with 8:55 left in the half.

At that point, Queta seemed to get rolling. The Aggies were 8 for 12 from the field in the final 10:04 of the half. Queta had three of those buckets and added four made free throws, posting 14 points at the break. He finished the game 12-21 from the field and 8 of 9 from the charity stripe.

“I just felt like it would be a good game for me to be aggressive,” Queta said. “I felt like I had an advantage in the post so I tried to take advantage and it just happened to be a good game for me.”

Despite a strong first half finish, USU lead by just two, in large part to Boise St. senior Derrick Alston. The NBA prospect had 18 first half points and finished the game with 26 points.

In the second half, Queta continued his dominance, throwing down an alley-oop from Ashworth to make the score 45-41 with 18:08, Utah State’s biggest lead of the game.

Sophomore RayJ Dennis and Alston both responded with three-pointers for the Broncos to keep pace. At the 12:37 mark with the score tied at 51, Queta got called for a push-off, his third foul of the game, sending him to the bench. He’d come back at the eight-minute mark and stay for the remainder of the game.

From the 9:47 to 5:06 mark USU would score just one bucket, yet trailed just one because of stout defense. But then it all fell apart.

The Aggies have a chance for revenge on Friday, still in desperate need of a signature win.

“We have another tremendous opportunity on Friday to play another quad-one game,” said Smith. “We’re still playing for a league championship (and) we’re still playing for a spot to get into the NCAA tournament. I know our guys will be locked in and fired up and ready to play again here in about 47 hours.”

@jacobnielson12

—sports@usustatesman.com