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By Earl Scott
Even with the mental letdown, USU (3-0) came away with an 89-84 victory over Illinois State. Despite the win, Head Coach Stew Morrill was upset with the lack of effort by his team and canceled a scheduled day off Sunday so his team could work on defense. "We weren't great defensively last year and we're worse this year, and it's what we've been working our tail off on in practice," Morrill said. "We came out flat, we have to figure out how to guard somebody . . . if we play like this Wednesday against Utah we'll get beat. We're lucky this was a home game or I think we would've lost." Fortunately for the Aggies they had their scoring touch, shooting a sizzling 79 percent from the field in the second half. The scoring surge was led by guard Mark Brown, who had career highs with 20 points and 13 assists, while committing only two turnovers in 33 minutes. Brown's previous career high was 19 points, coincidently enough against the Redbirds (1-2). "I guess I just like playing against these guys," Brown said. "The 13 assists go to my teammates. You don't get that many assists without someone scoring baskets." Brown had three points and four assists at the break before exploding in the second half. "We could not stop him," ISU Head Coach Porter Moser said of Brown. "We had no point guard that could stop his dribble penetration. He just drove by us like the wind." Down by as many as 11 points midway through the first half on the strength of ISU forward Neil Plank's game-high 21 points, USU slowly began to chip away at the Redbird lead, cutting the margin to 31-30 at half time. Jason Williams made his first Division I start while still recuperating from strep throat. He scored 11 points in the first half before fatiguing. Nine of his points came as the Aggies were cutting into the Redbird lead. "Jason's got to get in better shape; he needs to push himself harder in practice," Morrill said. "He's got some offensive ability." The Aggies came out aggressive to start the second half with Spencer Nelson working his way inside for a layup and getting fouled. Nelson drained the free throw, scoring three of his 13 points and giving USU a lead it wouldn't let go of the remainder of the game. Nelson also grabbed a game-high seven rebounds. USU extended its lead to 13 points with about four minutes left in the game, but the Redbirds were not about to give up. They cut the deficit to eight points with 2:42 to go. Forward Cardell Butler scored five of his 14 points in the final minute to help seal the win for the Aggies. "We didn't match their intensity for about the first 30 minutes of the game," Butler said. "Our defense has to get better. If we play like this against Utah we'll lose by 30 points." Nate Harris also worked in 11 points as part of the USU scoring feast. The lack of defense by USU showed, as five Redbirds scored in double figures. The Aggies won the rebound battle, 27-19, which prevented many second shot opportunities for ISU. USU travels to Salt Lake City for game at 7 p.m. Wednesday against the University of Utah.
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