Utah State wins in-state war at WSU
Utah State’s men’s basketball team sharpened its No. 2 pencils and passed its first test of the season with a 66-60 in-state win on the road against Weber State last Tuesday.
The win snapped the Wildcats’ 19-game winning streak at the Dee Events Center.
“We were really out of sorts at times, but we’re happy to get out of here with a win,” said Utah State Head Coach Stew Morrill.
The Aggies pulled out a win in its early season in-state matchup with the Wildcats, but it was anything but pretty.
Morrill said he was expecting a tough game, and that’s exactly what he got.
“That’s an awfully good win for us,” he said. “We just kind of hung in there and battled.”
Neither team shot well from the field in the game, with the Wildcats hitting 33 percent compared to the Aggies 31
percent.
Utah State’s defense allowed a game-high 22 points to WSU forward Slobodan Ocokoljic and center Lance Allred added 15, but the Aggies held the rest of the Wildcats in check.
“[Ocokoljic] is a great player,” Nelson said. “We knew he was going to come out and get his points, but we were able to limit some of the other guys like [John] Hamilton and [Nic] Sparrow.”
Good free-throw shooting was key for Utah State. The Aggies hit 86 percent of their shots from the charity stripe. USU’s ability to hit from the line kept the team in the game early as the Aggies shot 12-of-14 in the first half and got almost half of their 27-24 halftime lead at the line.
Free throws also helped Utah State protect a second-half lead.
With the game tied at 47, Aggie guard Cardell Butler hit a three-pointer and forwards Nate Harris and Spencer Nelson traded impressive post passes for layups to take control of the game and the momentum.
Nelson led the team in scoring with 13 points.
Harris added 12, and Brown tossed in 11 more to help seal the road win.
“On the road, you’ve got to make things ugly,” Nelson said. “Tonight, we had our defense and our rebounding and that’s the whole key.”
The lead changed hands 13 times with seven ties in the game.
-royburton@cc.usu.edu