by Amos Naismith
December 1, 2007 (c) TrueAggies.com
Exclusive to TrueAggies.com
Logan, UT -- An explosive second half propelled the Utah State men's basketball team past a good Santa Clara squad 71-65 on Saturday night in front of a packed Dee Glenn Smith Spectrum.
A familiar score-line for Aggie fans shows Jaycee Carroll with a game-leading 25 points, and the big men Steve DuCharme and Gary Wilkinson getting 12 and 11 respectively.
The Aggies 26 rebounds as a team tied the Broncos on the night who have yet to be out rebounded in a game this season. DuCharme lead Utah State with 10 boards.
After getting knotted up at four points apiece in the opening minutes, Santa Clara quickly took the lead and held onto it until a minute after the intermission when a triple from Carroll put Utah State at a 31-30 advantage. The Aggies kept that lead for the remainder of the half, although the Broncos always kept the difference close enough to stay within arms reach of a comeback. Down the stretch Santa Clara began to show signs of wear, turning the ball over in key situations with key players getting into foul trouble. Four of their five starters had at least four fouls, and Calvin Johnson left the game with 1:05 remaining with his fifth.
When the foul was called on Johnson, the crowd roared thinking it was Broncos leading scorer John Bryant, who was also involved in the play and had a single foul keeping him in the game. As Johnson and Bryant walked toward the bench, after the call, the student section bellowed their traditional chant of following the guilty players steps - calling out "left" or "right" depending on which foot the player was using to walk - or stand on - at that moment.
The students were enjoying their chanting so much that they didn't realize they were badgering the wrong player until Bryant trotted back down the court and the chants of "left! right!" faded for a moment. Then, the message of the blunder passed quickly through the stands with a chuckle and everyone started hounding Johnson until he took his seat on the bench.
Within that final 65 seconds of play the Broncos came within two points when Bryant drew Wilkinson's fifth foul while making a layup and then the ensuing free throw, making it 67-65 with 0:55 on the clock. After letting over 30 seconds tick away Desmond Stephens was fouled and made both of his charity shots with 0:22 remaining.
Brody Angley, who had been shooting well for most of the night, missed a deuce for Santa Clara with 0:12 left, with the rebounding falling to DuCharme who was instantly fouled. DuCharme was perfect from the line on his pair of chances, sealing the win for the Aggies.
It was a night for the record books for Carroll who moved past Brian Jackson (1,903) to take over third place on the all-time scoring list for the Aggies. According to USUStats.com Jaycee started the night with 1,895 points scored for Utah State, add the 25 he put in against Santa Clara and now he sits at 1,920 - just 89 points from Wayne Estes' 2,001 points. In addition to moving up in the Utah State scoring charts Carroll hit another record by scoring his 283rd shot from behind the arc, tying the school record set by Tony Brown in 2002.
You can email feedback, or comments and suggestions to Amos at amosnaismith@trueaggies.com
Official Basketball Box Score
Santa Clara vs Utah State
12/01/07 7:05 p.m. at Logan, Utah (Dee Glen Smith Spectrum)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VISITORS: Santa Clara 5-2
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
21 HENKE, Mitch........ f 2-7 1-4 3-4 1 3 4 4 8 2 2 0 0 35
34 ZIMMERMANN, Andrew.. f 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 4 2 2 1 1 2 21
54 BRYANT, John........ c 8-13 0-0 4-6 1 5 6 4 20 1 4 2 0 28
03 JOHNSON, Calvin..... g 0-2 0-2 0-0 1 1 2 5 0 1 0 0 0 23
05 ANGLEY, Brody....... g 9-17 2-4 2-2 0 1 1 2 22 6 5 0 1 36
04 TIEDEMAN, Zac....... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 14
11 GUNDERSON, Jonathan. 4-4 3-3 0-0 0 2 2 0 11 1 1 0 0 17
13 MBANUGO, Okechukwu.. 0-1 0-0 0-2 1 4 5 3 0 0 1 0 1 13
24 LATIMER, Cedric..... 1-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 13
TEAM................ 1 1 2
Totals.............. 25-46 6-13 9-14 6 20 26 24 65 14 14 3 4 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-25 44.0% 2nd Half: 14-21 66.7% Game: 54.3% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-7 42.9% 2nd Half: 3-6 50.0% Game: 46.2% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 5-8 62.5% 2nd Half: 4-6 66.7% Game: 64.3% 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOME TEAM: Utah State 5-4
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
40 DuCharme, Stephen... f 2-6 0-0 8-12 2 8 10 1 12 0 3 0 0 29
55 Wilkinson, Gary..... f 3-7 1-2 4-6 2 3 5 5 11 1 1 0 0 27
10 Clark, Kris......... g 1-4 1-3 2-2 0 1 1 1 5 7 0 0 2 33
11 Spraggins, DeUndrae. g 0-3 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 4 0 1 1 1 2 17
20 Carroll, Jaycee..... g 9-16 4-7 3-4 0 3 3 0 25 2 1 0 1 40
15 Stephens, Desmond... 3-5 1-3 2-2 1 0 1 1 9 2 1 0 2 19
24 Newbold, Tyler...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 11
34 Niang, Modou........ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3
42 Wesley, Tai......... 3-3 0-0 3-5 1 1 2 2 9 0 2 0 0 21
TEAM................ 1 1 2
Totals.............. 21-44 7-17 22-31 7 19 26 14 71 14 9 2 7 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 8-20 40.0% 2nd Half: 13-24 54.2% Game: 47.7% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-5 20.0% 2nd Half: 6-12 50.0% Game: 41.2% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 9-14 64.3% 2nd Half: 13-17 76.5% Game: 71.0% 5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Officials: David Hal, Byrne Haskins, Jim Stupin
Technical fouls: Santa Clara-None. Utah State-None.
Attendance: 9345
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Santa Clara................... 30 35 - 65
Utah State.................... 26 45 - 71
ID-569039
Points in the paint-SCU 28,USU 18. Points off turnovers-SCU 14,USU 23.
2nd chance points-SCU 8,USU 9. Fast break points-SCU 3,USU 0.
Bench points-SCU 13,USU 18. Score tied-1 time. Lead changed-3 times.
Last FG-SCU 2nd-00:55, USU 2nd-03:43.
Largest lead-SCU by 9 1st-07:29, USU by 11 2nd-03:43.