Utah State ends losing streak with win over New Mexico
The Utah State men’s basketball team ended a five-game losing streak with an 80-72 win over New Mexico Tuesday night in Logan.
“We needed this,” said Aggie senior guard Chris Smith. “We definitely needed this.”
An encouraging first half saw USU take a 40-32 lead into the break, but the Aggies have had a number of strong performances this season be washed out by poor play in the early minutes of the second half.
“I told the coaches at halftime, ‘You’re going to see the quickest trigger ever if we don’t get off to a good start,’” said head coach Tim Duryea.
Duryea was forced to pull the trigger on the timeout after the Lobos cut the lead to two less than a minute and a half into the second period.
“We all came in [to the huddle] and said, ‘We can’t let this happen,’” Smith said. “Especially not in front of our fans … We’ve got to bring home a win tonight.”
The Aggies stopped the run, holding New Mexico to just two points over the next four minutes.
“I’ll give Darius Perkins a lot of credit because he basically led that timeout huddle,” Duryea said. “He talked to everybody and said that wasn’t going to happen tonight. You know, this streak stops right here.”
Utah State has shown the ability to play with every team in the Mountain West conference this year, but has been unable to close out a number of games.
That wasn’t a problem on Tuesday.
“I thought it was a different group mentally out there tonight,” Duryea said. “That was great to see.”
The lead eventually stretched to 11 on a sequence with just under seven minutes remaining in the game.
Perkins hit a 3-pointer to put USU up by eight, then stole the ball and led a three-on-one fast-break, dishing it to junior wing Jalen Moore for a layup through contact. Moore’s free throw put the Aggies up by 11.
“Everyone on the team’s been yearning for that one win,” said freshman forward Quinn Taylor. “Everyone in the locker room, everyone out there gave their all tonight.”
It was the seniors, though, that led the charge.
“A lot of resolve from the seniors,” Duryea said. “Those guys want to have a good year and they want to represent Utah State.”
Smith led the Aggies with 19 points on 5 of 11 shooting and four assists. Perkins finished with nine points, two assists and two rebounds.
Taylor had a career night with eight points and 10 rebounds, including five on the offensive glass.
The focus for USU now turns to Colorado State.
“In the 15 years I’ve been here in this program, we’ve had two goals,” Duryea said. “One of them is always stay together and the other one is win your next game. That won’t change. Our next goal is to win our next game.”
The Aggies will take on the Colorado State Rams on Feb. 17 in Logan at 7 p.m.
— thomas.sorenson@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @tomcat340