USU vandalizes Idaho
Utah State University basketball coach Stew Morrill knows Desmond Penigar and Tony Brown will not always have good nights. Morrill said someone else also needs to be successful on the offensive end if the Aggies are going to win. Saturday night, Jeremy Vague became the third scorer.
“Jeremy had a very active game,” Morrill said following the Aggies’ 57-46 victory over Big West foes the University of Idaho.
Vague, who not only helped on the offensive end with 5-of-8 shooting and 10 points, he also chipped in on the defensive side leading the team with eight rebounds, six of which came off the defensive glass.
“It wasn’t pretty but we don’t care, we’re just happy to get a win,” Morrill said.
For the first time all season, the Aggies lost the rebounding battle, 39-34.
Vandal Rodney Hilaire, listed as one of Idaho’s tallest players at 6 feet 6 inches, led his team with seven rebounds.
“It’s been a struggle every time we’ve been up here,” Morrill said. “Idaho was quick to the glass.”
At halftime, Idaho led the rebound battle (23-13) and the game (26-24).
Struggling with Idaho’s scrappy play and zone defense, the Aggies came out quick in the second half to tie the game at 26-26 off two free throws from Toraino Johnson.
Johnson, who received his first start of the year, finished with four points.
“Toraino practiced well,” Morrill said. “It took some of the pressure off Chad [Evans].”
Even though he did not start, Evans ended up playing 21 minutes, compared to the 16 minutes of action Johnson saw.
“Chad did a great job defensively,” Morrill said. “He’s been solid.”
After tying the game, the Aggies found themselves in a 35-26 hole after a 9-0 point Vandal run.
USU scoring leader, Penigar, scored his second bucket of the game with just under 15 minutes of play remaining in the game to stop the U of I run. Penigar finished with 10 points and six rebounds.
The Aggies went on a 27-9 scoring run 14 minutes left to close out the game.
During the Aggie run, Brown sunk three of his seven 3 pointers and moved into 12th place on Utah State’s all-time scoring record. Brown (1397 career points) passed Dan Conway (1395 career points) and finished the game with a team-high 25 points on 7-of-10 shooting from 3-point land.
“That’s very good,” teammate Thomas Vincent said of Brown’s play. “He’s the man right now. He leads in an unbelievable way.”
Vincent did a little leading of his own down the stretch.
Morrill said his team needed the guard during the Aggie run. Even though his shots were not going down, Morrill said he matched up better against the Vandals zone defense than Ronnie Ross did.
“It felt great to come in and help run the team,” Vincent said. “Sometimes [shooting] goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t.”
The only player who found most of their shots going down for Idaho was Justin Logan, who led the Vandals with 12 points, including two 3 pointers. Logan, who had played all 40 minutes in the last nine games, watched four minutes of the action from the bench as he suffered a head injury with eight minutes remaining.
Moe Jenkins also had 11 points for the Vandals.
In other Big West action, the University of California Anteaters fell to the Cal Poly Mustangs 50-47 Saturday at Cal Poly.
Holding a 7-2 record, the Anteaters are tied with Cal State Northridge for supremacy in the BW followed by the 6-3 Aggies and University of California Santa Barbara Mustangs tied for third place.
“It’s an interesting league race,” Morrill said.
Utah State will host UC Santa Barbara Thursday in the Spectrum.
“It will be nice to get home,” Morrill said. “We know what we’re in for.”