USU men’s hoops holds on to 75-72 win over Nevada

Playing their third game straight game without freshman guard Rollie Worster, the Aggie offense started to figure things out, scoring 64 points in the first 29 minutes of the game. The deficiencies that plagued them last week against Boise State — poor outside shooting and a one-dimensional offense — seemed to be fixed. Utah State shot 11 of 21 from beyond the arc and had multiple players besides junior center Neemias Queta step up.

But thanks to Nevada guards Desmond Cambridge and Grant Sherfield — and a flurry of Aggie turnovers — the Wolfpack managed to cut a 64-46 point deficit at the 11 minutes mark to 71-69 with 31 seconds remaining.

“We thought we really played very well in a lot of stretches tonight,” said USU head coach Craig Smith. “Obviously we did not finish the game at all like we wanted to but part of that you gotta credit Nevada…We’ve got to be able to finish these games better, but I thought we had a lot of good individual efforts all night long.”

One laudable effort was that of junior Justin Bean. The scrappy forward always brings energy and intensity, but on Friday night he was extra effective offensively. Bean had a team-high 19 points on 7 of 13 shooting and shot 3 of 5 from beyond the arc. His 10 rebounds gave him his seventh double-double of the season. When Bean was at his best, the Aggies were at their best.

“I thought tonight there were a lot of opportunities for me to knock down some shots,” Bean said. “If I’m doing that, if I’m just being aggressive, just trying to help our team however I can, it can take the pressure off of Neemy a little bit.”

After a lengthy delay due to a game clock malfunction, both teams started the game ice-cold, the Wolf Pack shooting 1-6 and the Aggies 2-9.  But Bean was a catalyst to get things going, hitting a three-ball at the top of the key to help break the ice.

After nine minutes of back and forth play, the Aggies started to build their lead. Freshman guard Steven Ashworth — who finished with nine points — launched a three from deep and knocked it down to give USU a 14-13 lead with 11:05 to play in the half. On the ensuing possession, he stole the ball and found fellow freshman Max Shulga — who tied his career-high with seven points — down the court for an easy layup.

Then, Bean started rolling, scoring back-to-back buckets, and the Aggies closed the half on a 30 to 12 run to lead 41-25.

In the final 10 minutes of the first half and the first 10 minutes of the second half, USU outscored Nevada 48 to 33 and it was backed by 16 points from Bean during that span.

Throughout most of the game, the defense on Sherfield — Nevada’s most dynamic player — was phenomenal. Junior guard Marco Anthony, and whoever else that would switch onto him, held him to just 5 points on four shots in the first half.

“Marco I thought did a great job defensively guarding their best player and limiting him,” Bean said.

The start of the second half was a similar story, junior Brock Miller — who finished with 10 points — hit back-to-back three; then Justin Bean hit back-to-back threes, and the Aggies led 57 to 38 with 15:08 to play.

But the Aggie offense began to slow down, and their healthy lead began to diminish. Lackadaisical passes trying to feed the ball to Queta, and poor ball security resulted in nine second-half turnovers. Cambridge proved menacing on the other end, hitting 13 points on 5 of 10 shooting in the second half.

The Aggies still led by ten, 71 to 61 with 2:20 to play, but then Nevada got hot. Back-to-back threes from Sherfield and Cambridge cut it to four with 1:16 left. After a missed layup by Marco, Robby Robinson made a layup to cut it to two. A pair of free throws by Ashworth, followed by a Miller steal, and another Ashworth free throw made it 74 to 69.

But the Wolf Pack still had life, as Daniel Foster hit a three to cut to two with five seconds left. After another missed Ashworth free throw, Nevada would throw up a prayer at the buzzer, but it fell short.

The Aggies take on Nevada once again on Sunday at 5:00 P.M. in the Spectrum.

@jacobnielson12

—sports@usustatesman.com