Show a $ USU's Haakon Austefjord drives to the basket during Saturday night's encounter with the University of Utah in Salt Lake City The Aggies couldn rivals Now they must wait for the Utes to visit the Spectrum on Dec 23 to try to even the score to beat their te Ags falter at hands of Utes lose opener by Kent Somers The faces may have changed but the results haven’t The University of Utah basketball team with only one returning starter from last year’s 25-- 5 squad beat Utah State Saturday night in Salt Lake City 87-7- 3 Jerry Pimm’s club which beat the Ags twice last year is so young they look like they just walked out of a Stridex ad But the Utes played the game like salty veterans in the second half to whip the Aggies One of the Aggies’ main problems was their ineptness of defense Pace Mannion a 6--7 junior and the Utes’ only returning starter scored 21 points and gave the USU guards fits all night “Our guards don’t play defense” said Utah State Coach Rod Tueller “Our kids’ whole game is dictated by the offense I am not going to put the whole defensive problem on the guards but it all starts out there” One of the most important facets of the game was the Utes’ ability to fastbreak in the second half “Our break helped us tonight” said Pimm “Our shot selection was very good” “We just didn’t give Leo enough help" said Tueller Pimm also praised Cunningham’s plav “He is a legitimate bonafide player now" said Punm “He played extremely hard the whole game ” But Mannion neutralized any USU momentum He belted in 15 points in the second half and at he was able to get above the shorter L’tah State guards Mannion also had 1 1 assists from his point guard position and shot nine for 13 from the field Jerry doesn t have a whole lot of experience" said Tueller “But they are winners I hev come off a great team and know how to get it done " The first half was a Jeckvl ‘ Hde performance with both clubs handling the lead like it was a live grenade thrown into a bunker The Utes opened the game running their patternn ed offense and defense forcing the Ags to play sloppily and Utah led with 18 37 left in the half But the Aggies started to clu k behind the spark of Lance Washington and took over the lead behind two Washington free throws Utah State looking absolutelv nothing like the team beaten by the Brewster Heights Applepackers last Monday stretched its lead to 20-2with 7 58 left in the ballgame Just as quickly as the Ags had assumed the lead ’ they turned into Dr Jeckyl allowing the Utes to ramble to a 6 lead The U of U ragained the b-- 7 man-to-ma- 6-- 2 12-1- 0 4 The only bright spot for the Ags was the play of center Leo Cunningham Cunningham netted 28 points grabbed 1 1 rebounds and accounted for the majority of USU’s offense 6-- jL iiiiTTT W 37-3- t find vshat lttooi 87-7- 3 ball With 20 seconds left in the half and Mannion buzzer® a jumK-- r from the top ot the kes at the halftime lead give Utah a the two teams exchanged half In the second Hamm® buckets before l’eter Williams and Craig the and started hitting the outside jumpers with 12 minutes left The Ags with the exception of Cunningham Utah to runiu began to fall apart and allowed fastbreak at will 41-5- -- 8 th Utah State scored onlv eight points in or the victory five minutes of play assuring Utes held The Aggies shot 52 percent from the a 50 Ptctn ballgame but could muster only 10 from the free throw line Cunningham of 12 from the charity stripe The Utes shot nearly 60 percent from t canned 78 percent of their free throwss ot part to poor Aggie defense and good by the Utes not pleased Despite the win Pimm was not Pf tain parts of Utah’s game "I was l oc not did “We said our defense” he at t e resulting in their getting two shots season 1 the on noWflf)(J The Aggies at Missoula Montana to plav the University tana Thursday night 0-- |