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Show Utes fold in final minutes Aggies hand Redskins first loss, 90-72 .. , jfs with a numerous occasions. BY TOM WHARTON Sports Writer As the snow fell Saturday night, Utah's slowed-up Redskins became as cold as the weather and Utah State breezed to a 90-72 win before 15,121 fans in the Ute Wigwam. numerous occasions. The sophomore studded Aggies seemed to have more poise than the more experienced Redskins. Mahler was very tough on defense and much improved on offense. Ken Gardner, Gard-ner, playing in Utah's man-for-man defense, de-fense, drew Roberts and did a fair job defending him. The 6-8 Roberts' reach was just too much for the 6-5 Gardner to stop. Roberts hit some beautiful outside shots and showed the Utah fans why he was one of the top scorers in the nation last year. Utah faces San Jose State Friday night and undefeated Loyola of Los Angeles Saturday night in the Wigwam. Game time-is time-is 8 p.m. for both contests. The simple fact of Utah's loss to the Aggies was this: The Redskins folded under un-der pressure. When Walt Hawkins narrowed the Aggies' lead to one point with 8:40 remaining re-maining in the game, there were few fans who thought that the game would end with Utah State holding an 18 point lead. Last Bucket However, Hawkins' jump shot was the last field goal that the Utes could manage. man-age. It is almost fortunate for Utah that USU great Marv Roberts didn't foul out any earlier because, when the 6-8 junior fouled out with 7:25 left in the game, the lesser lights of the USU team-Jeff Tebbs, Ed Epps and John Ericksen- l"" I I I II i i . 1 -combined a sticky zone defense with a barrage of lay ups to out score Utah 24- in the final eight minutes and 40 seconds. sec-onds. The zone defense was the key factor in Utah State's win. Utah's offense just couldn't click and the Utes cold outside shooting added to Coach Jack Garner's woes. Last year's star of the Utah-Utah State rivalry, Mike Newlin, did not play one of his better games. Newlin went six for 18 from the field and eight for nine from the free throw line for 20 points. The junior star pulled down a commendable nine rebounds but committed four of Utah's 14 turnovers. The outstanding part of Newlin's Saturday Sat-urday game was his passing. Newlin passed pass-ed up several good shots to pass to an open teammate. Roberts Effective Marv Roberts, who was held considerably con-siderably under his average in last year's two Ute-Ag games, played an excellent game. Roberts hit 12 for 20 from the field and six for eight from the line for 27 points. Utah State's second high scorer, Nate Williams, was tied with Utah's Ken Gardner Gar-dner for high rebounding honors with 12. Williams killed Utah on the offensive boards and enabled the Aggies to get three and four shots under the basket. Utah's biggest surprise was center Jim Mahler. The 6-10 center hit 17 points and sparked a rally which gave Utah a 55-54 second half lead. Utah State led by as many as 13 in the first half but Newlin, Gardner and Mahler found the range for four field goals to harrow the lead to 47-39 at half-time. half-time. A big factor in the Aggie win was its superior bench. The Aggies got fine performances per-formances from Epps, Ericksen, and Walter Bees. Ken Borrevik and John Hunter played commendable games for the Utes but the Redskin subs didn't give the spark to Utah the USU got from its bench. Hot Hand Utah State hit a torrid 50.7 from the field compared to Utah's rather dismal 34.2 from the field. Utah missed lay-ups, lay-ups, short jumpers and threw away passes in the final minutes. Utah State committed 22 fouls to Utah's 18. The zone defense offered the largest crowd ever to see a basketball game in Utah a much slower game than was expected. ex-pected. Utah State's offensive rebounding rebound-ing was excellent and the Aggies were able to get off as many as four shots on ffl w& rr py ' '" 1 1 i it " v ..L Even Ken Gardner (35) and Mike Newlin (14) were unable to stop USU's great Marv Roberts. Roberts netted 27 points although missing the last seven minutes of the game by foulmg out. Photos by CRAIG LAW Basketball, football or maybe even west-ling? west-ling? Players on both sides ol the Utah-USU Utah-USU rivalry gave 100 per cent Saturday. Above, Mike Newlin (14) and State's Nate Williams scramble for ball that got away. Ute game captain Walt Hawkins goes up for layup against Aggies. One of the Redskins' troubles was the failure to make the "easy" shot such as the layup. However, Hawkins converts here, during Utah's mid-second half surge. |