LOGAN— The Utah State men’s basketball team played in its first ever non-televised ESPN BracketBuster game. After falling to former Big West foe UC Santa Barbara, 72-64, the Aggies are probably glad for the lack of national exposure.
Sophomore guard Preston Medlin finished with 14 points, but poor shooting proved costly for USU.
“We knew we drew a good team,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said. “We drew a really good Big West team. They’re a veteran team and they showed it.”
Utah State controlled the tip and scored first after junior forward Kyisean Reed was fouled and hit one of two free throws, and the Aggies didn’t trail until the eight minute mark of the first half. The Gauchos responded and used a 10-2 run to turn a five-point deficit into a three-point lead with less than six minutes left before the half.
UC Santa Barbara outscored Utah State 14-8 in the paint in the first half, including nine second-chance points. Utah State shot 26.1 percent from the field in the half, and converted just 1-of-6 3-point attempts for 16.7 percent.
Medlin said UCSB’s wing play was the difference.
“(Their) wings came out and played us great,” Medlin said. “They each had over 20 points, and they shot great from the field. We let them get open, and they hit the shots.”
Though the Aggies shooting percentage improved in the second half, the defense was unable to stop the Gauchos. Orlando Johnson hit back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers in the first four minutes, and gave UCSB a 13-point lead with 16:30 to play.
UC Santa Barbara continued to control the game and led by as many as 16 with more than 11 minutes remaining. A smaller Aggie lineup struggled against the bigger Gauchos as USU was called for six fouls in six minutes.
Utah State still had some fight left.
Trailing by 11 with seven minutes to play, the Aggies found a spark and went on a 7-0 run over a span of 80 seconds. Danny Berger hit a jumper to cut the lead to single digits, Pane hit three free throws, including one on an old-fashioned three-point play and USU had the momentum.
The comeback was short-lived.
On the ensuing possession, senior forward Morgan Grim pulled down an offensive rebound and was fouled on the put-back attempt. After the whistle, Grim was issued a technical foul and James Nunnally converted both free throws to give the Gauchos a six-point lead.
Grim committed another foul 20 seconds later on the defensive end, and less than one minute after the Aggies had pulled within four the deficit was back to double digits. USU never recovered and lost their fourth home game of the season – their most since 1994-95.
“We let Johnson get going,” Morrill said. “We didn’t have the post show we should have had. Defending their wings was the worst thing that we did.”
With the loss the Aggies fall to 14-14 on the season, and are 5-6 in WAC play with three games remaining. Utah State will host Idaho in its final home game of the season Feb. 24, with tipoff scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Spectrum.
Story by Curtis Lundstrom
Photos by Curtis Ripplinger
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