by Amos Naismith
January 28, 2006 (c) TrueAggies.com
Exclusive to TrueAggies.com
LOGAN, Utah -- Even though the Aggies came out with a 72-51 win over the
South Dakota State Jackrabbits, the game was a little too close for coach Stew
Morrell’s comfort who said he felt he needed to play his two leading scorers,
Nate Harris and Jaycee Carroll, for over 30 minutes each to ensure a victory.
The Jackrabbits (5-14) are only in their second year as a Division-I school and
as such are an independent, meaning they are not part of any conference for
basketball. Because of their independent status, the Jackrabbits were able to
help the Aggies (14-4) fill a hole in their schedule – most other teams find
themselves in the thick of league play.
Carroll led the charge for the Aggies with 18 points as he sank 4 of 8 from
3-point range. Carroll had been in somewhat of a shooting slump of late
shooting only 22 percent and 20 percent from behind the arc in recent games.
Carroll received support from the usual suspects.
Harris added 15 points to the Aggies cause, while David Pak scored 14 and Cass Matheus brought home 10. Pak found his long range scoring touch by scoring 12 from 3-point land.
USU exploded out to a 13-1 lead less than five minutes into the game. With 15:20 to go in the half SDSU hit a three and began slowly working to keep themselves in the game. The Aggies commonly kept a 10-point lead through much of the first half.
With 5:52 left in the half, Pak slipped one of his team-high 7 assists into Harris. While Pak worked his way across the lane he looked to kick it out to Carroll in his usual spot in the corner, but instead dropped the ball off to a wide-open Harris under the basket for the easy lay-in to put Utah State up 30-12.
The Jackrabbits continued to chip away at the Aggie lead and came as close as 9 points, 33-24, at the intermission.
Utah State opened the second half with a Carroll 3-pointer and then just a few minutes later Pak sank a pair of back-to-back triple-point baskets giving the Ags a 43-26 lead.
The USU student section must have gotten bored in the second half as they did something rather peculiar – they began to cheer for the Jackrabbits. They didn’t cheer for the team as a whole but for Andy Kleinjan who appeared in the second half for South Dakota State. Their enthusiasm for Kleinjan was contagious as cheers began to spread every time he touched the ball.
The bleach-blond mop of hair, held down with a gold headband, must have been too much for the ruckus student section as chants of “MVP” came from that part of the Spectrum after he sank each of his two baskets.
The Aggies jump back into league play on Monday as Hawaii visits the Spectrum for the second time in three years. The last time the Rainbow Warriors were in Logan, they knocked the Aggies out of the first round of the NIT Tournament with a 74-85 victory over USU. The two teams met the first time as WAC opponents in December as Utah State also was on the losing end of that 69-59 score line.
Revenge is on the minds of the Aggies. According to Stew, if you really are a True Aggie you’ll be at the Spectrum on Monday night at 10pm. The Monday game will start at 10 p.m. on ESPN2, for those who can’t make it to the Spectrum, as ESPN has the “Winter X Games 10” currently.
You can email feedback, or comments and suggestions to Amos at amosnaismith@trueaggies.com