By Sydney Chapman LOGAN—The Utah State men’s basketball team entered the Spectrum Wednesday night looking to defend its 7-0 home record against the Fresno State Bulldogs — but by the end of the night it was the Bulldogs, not the Aggies, who were celebrating.
With 5.5 seconds left in the game, Fresno’s Braxton Huggins hit a three point jumper which gave the Bulldog’s their first lead of the entire game — as well as the final victory. Junior guard Sam Merrill tried to put the Aggies back on top by launching a last-second three pointer of his own, but to no avail. The shot came up short and as time expired it would be 78-77, Fresno State. “Basketball's a humbling game right?” said USU head coach Craig Smith. “...they scored on five of their last six possessions and so we just couldn't find a way to get those stops down the stretch.” But the loss wasn’t from Utah State’s lack of effort. The team had five players score in the double digits and freshman center Neemias Queta had a career high of six blocks, which ties for the third-most in school history. The Aggies even had a better overall shooting percentage than Fresno State. But in the end, it was the number of shots each team got off that determined the final score. “You shoot 51 percent for the game, you know most nights you're probably going to win,” Smith said. “... and they go 15 for 31 from the three and they needed every one of them to win by one.” Smith said that what really made the loss disappointing was that it happened in Logan. The defeat not only snapped the Aggies' perfect home record, but it also gave them a 1-2 record for conference play. The other loss came from last week’s game against Nevada, which is currently ranked 10th in the nation. According to redshirt freshman Brock Miller, while both of these losses have been tough ones, the team has not given up on the rest of the season. “Overall, you know, I think we're gonna learn from this and just kind of continue forward and keep working hard,” Miller said. “...we're still heads up, we're positive and we're gonna be ready to roll on Saturday.” The Aggies will play Wyoming on the road this Saturday at 4 p.m.
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March 2019
CategoriesAbout SydneySydney Chapman is a journalism student at Utah State University. A former intern at Deseret News and avid sports fan, Chapman has experience covering professional sporting events and writing on trending topics. She uses this website to report on the Utah State University men's basketball team. |