LOGAN – For the Utah State Aggies, Tuesday’s late-night affair at the Spectrum was a twofer.
Not only were they able to right the ship following last weekend’s stunning meltdown at Boise State, but they also avenged a brutal loss at Air Force two weeks earlier by beating the Falcons by an even larger margin, winning 72-47.
“It was a good bounce-back win in a lot of ways from a tough loss the other night and after our difficult loss to them,” USU head coach Craig Smith said. “I thought our guys played great.”
Utah State (4-4 in the Mountain West, 15-6 overall) is now a perfect 12-0 against Air Force on its home court, and the Aggies own a 19-6 all-time advantage against the Falcons (3-5, 9-11). Needless to say, USU was determined to prove that its 19-point loss on Jan. 7 at Colorado Springs was not going to be the new normal when the two teams faced each other again.
“They punked us at their place, and they had some fun with it, and they deserved to have some fun with it with the way that they beat us down,” USU guard Sam Merrill noted, “so we were definitely ready tonight, that’s for sure.”
Although Merrill didn’t score his first points of the game until the final two minutes of the opening half, the senior from Bountiful finished with 15 points to surpass the 1,900-point mark for his Aggie career. Now sitting at 1,901 points, Merrill moved ahead of Cornell Green (1,890 points) and Brian Jackson (1,900) on the USU all-time leading scorer list, leaving him in fourth place behind only Wayne Estes (2,001), Greg Grant (2,127) and Jaycee Carroll (2,522).
“I didn’t know that. I guess that means I’ve played,” Merrill said with a chuckle after he was informed of his new place in the USU record book. “But to this point, I’m just grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to play for Utah State and to contribute in any way that I can.”
Merrill put up a season-high 30 points at Boise State on Jan. 18, but the Aggies still lost, 88-83 in overtime, after blowing an 18-point lead with 4:10 left in regulation. Against the Falcons, Utah State maintained control from start to finish, going up 7-0 at the beginning of the contest, taking a 32-21 lead into halftime and then pulling away by as many as 27 points in the second half.
Sophomore forward Justin Bean led the Aggies with 16 points, 13 rebounds and five assists in 33 minutes, while sophomore center Neemias Queta, who knocked down a 3-pointer for USU’s first field goal of the game, finished up with 14 points in just 20 minutes. After dominating Air Force in the paint early on, Smith said Queta started to feel sick late in the first half, which was why he was limited to eight minutes in the second half.
“There were a lot of great performances tonight,” Smith said. “We challenged Justin yesterday, and this was the first time he’s really looked like Justin again from some of the injuries he’s been dealing with. Finishing with 16 points, 13 rebounds — five of them offensive — and five assists. He really did it all that way.
“I thought Neemi really got us going inside, 6-of-8 from the field. Sam was Sam, I thought Diogo (Brito) responded in a good way. (Freshman center) Trevin Dorius was really good in his last run out there, really made an impact on both sides of the ball.”
Utah State’s sixth man, Brito has struggled of late, but the senior guard started the second half and ended up playing all but the final four minutes of the game. He finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and three assists while going 3 for 6 from 3-point range.
Dorius pulled down five of his eight rebounds in the second half, helping the Aggies build a final advantage of 45-34 on the boards. In the loss at Air Force, the Falcons humbled USU, winning the rebounding battle, 50-29.
“We outrebounded them this time, which wasn’t the case last time at their place,” Bean said. “I’m just really proud of our guys overall and I thought we didn’t flinch. We had a chip on our shoulder and had something to prove and got the job done.”
“They punked us at their place and they had some fun with it and they deserved to have some fun with it with the way that they beat us down, so we were definitely ready tonight, that’s for sure.” — Utah State’s Sam Merrill
After shooting just 32.3% in the first half, Utah State made exactly half of its shot attempts in the second half and finished 9 for 28 from 3-point range. A technical foul by Smith with 5:50 to go in the first half might have had something to do with that turnaround.
Upset over a traveling call on Queta, Smith unloaded on the veteran officiating crew, which promptly led to four straight points by the Falcons behind two free throws and an uncontested layup that cut USU’s lead down to 20-17. But the Aggies went on to to score 23 of the next 29 points over the next eight-plus minutes of game time to put Air Force in a huge hole that, unlike Boise State, it was unable to climb out of.
“It was a team that was 1-4 in their last five, they lost an 18-point lead on Saturday and got beat by us by 19 at home, but they came out and went at it tonight,” Air Force head coach Dave Pilipovich said. “It showed why they were a hard matchup. We didn’t have an answer for Queta inside, he was able to score in there. We focused on him and let Merrill get free.”
Air Force shot just 29.4% for the game, including 3 for 19 from 3-point range. LaVelle Scottie (13 points) and Ryan Swan (10 points) led the Falcons in scoring, but finished a combined 10 for 28 from the field. Olympus High product Isaac Monson scored all three of his points at the free-throw line while playing seven minutes.