|
Utah State beats UC Irvine; Nelson named to the all-century
team
By Jerome Le Carrou
March 1, 2005 | The Aggies improved
to 21-7 overall and 12-5 in the Big West Conference
while the Anteaters fell to 6-10 in Saturday's 87-49
blowout in the Spectrum.
"They were some good things for
us tonight," said Aggies coach Stew Morrill. Senior
Spencer Nelson scored 21 points, grabbed five rebounds
and had five assists on the night he officially joined
the all-century team.
Nelson's teammate Jaycee Carroll said
playing with Nelson in his first year of college basketball
was something special that he would not forget.
Nelson was called for a technical
just before halftime, after the Anteaters' Aaron Fitzgerald
threw an elbow at Nelson and they exchanged words.
"How many people have gotten
a technical on the same night they were put on the all-century
team?" asked Nelson.
The Anteaters had a 8-3 run to start
the game, but Carroll scored four three-pointers in
the first five minutes, enabling the Aggies to take
a 12-10 lead. For the first time in the game, the Aggies
were behind.
"The first five or six minutes
they kind of caught us off guard with their energy level
and how hard they were playing and how aggressive they
were," said Morrill.
"Jaycee kind of save us. We were
having a heck of a time. As I said, they were the aggressor
at the start of the game. He just shot the heck out
of it," said Morrill.
The Anteaters had a 13-10 run and
took a 23-22 lead after a lay-up with Fitzgerald with
8:31 left.
But after a three-pointer by Chris Huber the Aggies
took a 25-23 lead with 8:13 left, then a 22-7 run enabled
them to come to the locker room with a 44-30 lead.
During the first half, Fitzgerald
was the key player for the Anteaters, as he scored his
17 points during it. Greg Ethington was the other Anteaters
in double-digits as he had 10 points for the game.
"We talked about the fact that
he had 17 of their 30 at half. He was really aggressive."
said Morrill. But the second half was totally different
as he didn’t score any points, Aggies' guards
were doing a better job on him. He probably had too
much pressure to handle while under the boos of the
crowd after beinn called for a technical at the same
time as Nelson.
"I think it was a combination
of us doing a decent job on him, him getting a little
tired and the fans getting all over his rear end. I
think it was a combination of all those things. He certainly
had a tough second half," added Morrill.
The Aggies changed their defense strategy
in the second half and played changing defense instead
of the straight man defense they had in the first half.
"We had a much better second
half, it’s really encouraging, everyone played
really well," said Nelson. The Aggies had a 30-7
run, enabling them to lead 74-37 after a lay-up by John
Neil with 8:32 left.
"The start of the second half
was kind of the difference in the game. They had a hard
time scoring and we made a few shots and all of a sudden
we had a nice lead," said Morrill. Anteaters coach
Pat Douglass said, "We were not quite physical
enough to be able to stay in it with Utah State,"
"They are just too tough for
us, they dominated us on both ends of the court. They
are the better team," he added.
During the last 40 seconds USU substitutes
Tyler Williams and Jimmie Edwards added two three-pointers,
and the Anteaters trailed by 38 points. The Aggies outrebounded
the Anteaters 36-27, and shot 55.6 percent from the
field while the Anteaters shot 36 percent.
The Aggies will face the Idaho Vandals
Friday night for their last home game before playing
in the Big West Tournament in Anaheim, Calif., beginning
March 9.
DN
DN
|
