Men's basketball team beats Long Beach for 20th victory

By Jerome Le Carrou

February 25, 2005 | Senior Spencer Nelson recorded his eighth double-double as he led the Utah State Aggies with 16 points and 11 rebounds in a 68-52 victory against the Long beach State 49ers Thursday night in the Spectrum.

"Not a pretty game, not a great game for the fans, but a win for the Ags, we'll take it." said Aggies coach Stew Morrill.

The Aggies improved to 11-5 in the Big West conference and recorded their sixth consecutive 20-win season.

"It says some things about how consistent our program has been. We've had a lot of good players," said Morrill.

The game was slow. The crowd didn't get into it as the atmosphere was less exciting than usual, probably because of the big lead the Aggies had early.

"It was a game that never had much flow," Morrill said.

Nelson attributed much of the awkwardness to the 49ers' strategy.

"They did a good job of taking the air out of the ball and not letting us get in flow," Nelson added.

For the first time, Aggies center Cass Matheus started the game. He justified Morrill's decision by scoring 14 points.

"He responded well. He was excited and played pretty good," said Morrill.

Two others Aggies also scored in double-digits. Nate Harris scored 15 and Jaycee Carroll had 13. The 49ers were led by Kevin Houston, who scored 12 points, and Cody Pearson 10.

The Aggies did a better job on the boards than the previous games, outreboundng the 49ers 31-20.

However, the Aggies converted only 8 of 19 free-throw attempts.

"It's like it was contagious, like the flu. One guy missed, another guy missed and another third guy thought he couldn't make it either," said Morrill.

Nelson said, "That's definitely not us. We're gonna have to deal with free throws on the practice and get solid, 'cause in closer games you definitely need your free throws."

The 49ers missed a lot of shots in the first half, and they also missed a lot of passes. In contrast, the Aggies had some great offensive passes and created collective plays rather than selfish baskets.

David Pak had seven assists as the Aggies recorded 20.

"A lot of people did a great job of distributing the ball," said Nelson.

The Aggies had a 15-4 run to start the game. Then the 49ers cut the margin to three with a 15-7 run after a jumper by Pearson with 4:54 left.

But a 9-2 run increased the Aggies' lead before halftime, with the Aggies ahead 31-21.

After the break the Aggies had a 17-12 run, and a lay-up by Harris gave a 50-33 led to the Aggies with 10:45 left.

They increased their lead with a 14-4 run, and the 49ers trailed by 27 points with 6:10 remaining.

The 49ers finally cut the margin to 16 after a lay-up by Pearson with eight seconds left.

The Aggies shot 51.8 percent from the field while the 49ers shot 46.8.

The Aggies will face UC Irvine Saturday night in the Spectrum. Morill said he is looking forward to a tough game. Nelson added that the Aggies had a couple of things to improve before the Big West tournament, and the game against UC Irvine stands for the perfect time to do so.

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