Utah State is making comebacks a specialty
In two games this tournament, Utah State has been down big. Against Colorado State it was 20-5, against Boise State it was 36-23 with 3:11 to play in the first half. Both times the Aggies came back, and both times they came away with a win.
The two games have certainly felt different — the comeback in the CSU game felt like a fulfilment of duty while the one against Boise felt like the high point of the decade for Utah State. But they were cut from the same comeback cloth.
In both games combined, Utah State was outscored by 10 in the first half — 18 in the first five minutes — but had a 24-point advantage in the second half.
Second-half magic has been as much a defining point of this tournament as big performances by Sam Merrill and Koby McEwen.
Most of the great play of Merrill and McEwen in the tournament has come in the second half. Merrill had zero points in the first half against Colorado State, but finished the game with 11 points. McEwen had just 4 against Boise State at halftime, but scored 10 points and grabbed five rebounds in the second half.
Koby McEwen and USU head coach Tim Duryea both said defense was the biggest factor in turning the games around.
“Both games we were getting good shots,” McEwen said. “The second half they just happened to fall. But in both games, the first half we weren’t defending. Once we got defensive confidence and our offense started to flow.”
Duryea said said the team typically talks about both sides of the ball before the game and at halftime. Things have been a bit different the last couple days
“We did not talk offense before the game. We didn’t talk offense at halftime,” Duryea said after the win against Boise State. “We discussed defense of lack thereof in the first half and how that had to change.”
Photo by Sydney Oliver
The Rams made eight of their first 13 shots and the Broncos made eight of their first 10 — including their first six. But after their respective hot starts, CSU and BSU shot 33.3 and 34 percent from the field respectively.
USU also did a much better job with getting easy buckets in the second half, especially at the free throw line. The Aggies shot nine free throws in the first half against CSU and zero against the Broncos. They had a combined 27 in the second half of both games.
Merrill said the extra free throws didn’t come from a drastic change in style of play.
“I don’t think offensively there was any different level of aggression from half to half,” Merrill said. “But we were able to channel our aggression better and play smarter, and that’s why we were able to shoot all those free throws.”