Utah State doomed by poor first half defense against Nevada
The Utah State men’s basketball team fell to 3-6 in Mountain West play on Saturday.
A dispiriting first half and a clumsy finish led to an 89-85 home loss to Nevada.
From the 10:32 mark of the first half — when the Aggies held a 22-16 lead over the visitors — through the first minute of the second half, USU scored just 13 points. In that stretch, Utah State shot 5 of 15 from the field, 1 of 6 from the free throw line and committed seven turnovers.
More concerning to the coaches and players, though, were the events taking place on the other side of the floor.
“[It was] a subpar performance defensively I thought,” said head coach Tim Duryea. “We made some really silly defensive mistakes.”
The Wolfpack, who shot 42 percent from the floor and 31 percent from deep prior to Saturday’s contest, connected on 49 percent and 46 percent, respectively, against USU.
“We guard at certain times for stretches,” Duryea said. “But we don’t guard for long enough and we don’t guard well enough in key stretches. Our defensive consistency has to get better. You can’t give up numbers like that to a team that shoots numbers like they do and expect to win.”
While the team was frustrated with its defensive showing against Nevada, the performance wasn’t wholly different from what the Aggies have demonstrated against the rest of the conference.
Only once in nine Mountain West games – against Air Force, who ranks in the bottom half of the league in every offensive category – has USU held its opponent under 40 percent shooting. In the other eight games, the Aggies have allowed seven halves of 50 percent or better from the floor, including two of 60 percent or better and one of 70 percent.
“There’s really nothing the coaches can do,” said senior guard Chris Smith. “It’s just us being tough enough to not let our man score.”
The Aggies’ gameplan coming into the Nevada game, Duryea said, was to play off the 3-point shooters more than they would against a better-shooting team, but still stay connected enough to discourage those shots.
Nevada victimized USU behind the line, knocking down 8 of 16 attempts in the first half and finishing the game with 10 makes, double what the team averaged coming into the game.
“We were definitely not playing those guys to shoot 3’s and yet you have to guard somebody where they believe you’re guarding them,” Duryea said. “Even though you’re playing for the bounce, you’re guarding the drive; you have to have enough of a defensive presence where they don’t get comfortable and can’t just rhythm into those shots.”
The defensive intensity increased in the second half as the Aggies held Nevada to 40 points – the last nine of which were from intentional fouls – after allowing 49 in the first period. The Wolfpack turned the ball over eight times after the break and attempted 13 fewer shots as USU made a run of its own to eventually tie the game.
Still, critical breakdowns cost the Aggies.
There was the 3-point shot by Nevada guard D.J. Fenner just seconds after Smith made one of his own to bring USU within four with just over nine minutes left to play. Wolfpack guard Marqueze Coleman tripped and lost the ball as he attempted a crossover dribble, but Fenner picked it up and calmly stepped behind the 3-point line as both Aggie defenders in the area inexplicably sagged back into the paint.
There were also the two offensive rebounds the Aggies allowed with Nevada clinging to a one-point lead and less than two-and-a-half minutes on the clock. Utah State eventually escaped the possession without allowing any points, but the sequence ran more than a minute off the clock.
“We need to be more tough on ourselves,” Smith said. “We need to hold ourselves more accountable. We get hit in the mouth, we can’t be scared and just let them do what they want. We have to fight back.”
For a USU team without a lack of interior presence, rebounding will always be a challenge.
The Aggies’ have performed acceptably on the boards this season, floating near the middle of the conference in offensive and defensive rebounding rates. Without the size that other teams in the conference have, USU is dependent on a combination of effort and intelligent positioning to collect defensive rebounds and prevent opponents from getting second chances.
Late in the first half, with Nevada in the midst of its monster 37-13 run, Wolfpack forward Cameron Oliver sliced through the lane for an explosive, uncontested put-back dunk that stood as an indictment of the Aggies’ defensive focus in the half.
The sequence started with a defender jumping out of position on a ball-fake and a soft closeout from another defender and ended with Oliver’s damning dunk while the Aggies watched, flat-footed.
“It just comes down to we’ve got to want it more,” said senior guard Darius Perkins. “It’s all the small things killing us right now.”
Things aren’t all bad for the Aggies. In the second half of Saturday’s contest, outside a couple poorly-timed mistakes, USU showed the potential that led to the lofty preseason expectations. Even in the other games in conference play, the Aggies have shown the ability to compete with the best the Mountain West has to offer.
“Every game besides New Mexico we’ve been in,” Smith said. “It’s not like everybody’s blowing us out or anything. We have to find a way, we don’t know how yet, but come together as a team and find a way to win games.”
Utah State will take to the road for two games this week, facing Boise State on Tuesday at 7 p.m. and playing again at Wyoming on Saturday at 4 p.m.
— thomas.sorenson@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @tomcat340