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Show Monday, Jan. 25, 2010 Page 8 MondayS 0 Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.aggietownsqua. By TYLER HUSKINSON staff writer Utah State Aggie senior guard Jared Quayle recorded a team-high 16 points and seven rebounds to lead the Aggies (15-6, 5-2) over the Idaho Vandals (8-9, 1-5), 60-48, on Saturday, Jan. 23, at the Cowan Spectrum in Moscow, Idaho. The Aggies moved into second place with the victory, and Aggie head coach Stew Morrill became the 73rd coach in the history of NCAA Division I to record 500 wins. The Aggies played solid defense, limiting the Vandals to just 33.3 percent shooting from the field and 14.3 percent from the 3-point line. The Aggies finished a difficult 5-out-of-7 road game stretch to start the Western Athletic Conference season with a 5-2 record, an accomplishment that Morrill is pleased with. "It was a cool experience for us to be there for him, to be able to support him," said Brady Jardine, Aggie sophomore forward, who came off the bench recording 10 points and six rebounds in 20 minutes of play. "He's such a great coach. To be there tonight to get the 500th win and to have him be there with us was awesome." Morrill had refused to UTAH STATE HEAD COACH STEW MORRILL reached his 500th career coaching victory Saturday against the Idaho Vandals. Morrill is one of just 19 active head coaches to have reached the 500 milestone. TODD JONES photo discuss the possibility of winning 500 games prior to defeating Idaho, but was relieved in the end. "I've just been really fortunate ... I'm sure I'll take a little time and reflect on it at some point, try and put some perspective on it ... how many great people have been involved in those games," Morrill said. Morrill also coached at Montana University and Colorado State University before coaching at USU, where he has been since the 1998-1999 season. The Aggies allowed the Vandals to shoot 46.2 percent from the field in the first half and, consequently, the Aggie lead was only 35-30 going into halftime. "At halftime we talked about it. We have to amp up our defense. They're shooting too high of a percentage. And let's see if we can at least get them under 40 for the second half and we did a pretty solid job," Morrill said. "They got uncomfortable against the zone. We did a really nice, solid job defensively." The Aggies did just that, allowing the Vandals to shoot only 18.2 percent from the field on four field goals and not a single shot from behind the 3-point line. The Aggies limited Vandals' senior guard and leading scorer Mac Hopson to seven points on the night. It was senior guard Kashif Watson who led the Vandals with 16 points. Watson was the the only Vandal to reach doublefigures. USU finished the game shooting 50 percent from the floor and 33.3 percent from behind the 3-point line. The HOCKEY Aggies, however, did not play without a lull. The Aggies failed to score a single point in the final five minutes of the game, but the Vandals only managed three points over the same five-minute stretch. "Sometimes we make the game ugly, and I've always said, 'If you can do that on the road, that's great,"' Morrill said. "Thank goodness we had a cushion and played good for 35, 36 minutes. Something we can learn from, though." Morrill has emphasized the difficulty of the start to the Aggies' WAC schedule on many occasions. Utah State started the difficult stretch dropping games on the road at New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech. The Aggies, however, are currently riding a five-game winning streak. "After the first two, I feel pretty good about 3-out-of-5 on the road," Morrill said. "We've bounced back and we feel that our basketball team is getting better. We have a week of practice here, and I hope we take advantage of it. Hopefully, we can keep getting better." Morrill is not the only one who has recognized the difference. The players are also aware of the transformation the team has made. "We're doing what we need to do (in practice)," Jardine said. "The prep was great this week. We focused, and I think that's what's been helping us. Our practice habits have been great. We've been working hard and coaches have been getting us ready, and so we're going out doing what we know we need to do." Utah State hosts the San Jose State Spartans on Saturday, Jan. 23 at the Spectrum. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. and the game will be televised on CW30. — ty.d.hus@aggiemaiLusu.edu WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Women comeback in final minute, lose in final seconds USU ATHLETICS UTAH STATE CAPTAIN KENT ARSENAULT fights for the puck in Saturday's game against the Cache Valley Trappers. The Aggies won the game against the local semi-pro team by a score of 9-3. PATRICK ODEN photo Aggies trap Trappers in local hockey battle By LANDON HEMSLEY sports senior writer Kyle Soder scored twice and Kyle Becker got his first goal of the season on Saturday, as the Aggies soundly defeated the Cache Valley Trappers at the Eccles Ice Center, 9-3. "It just kind of fell my way," Becker said of his goal. "I came out on the good end of it." "It's good to see Taco (Kyle Soder) get that done," team captain Kent Arsenault said, "and Becker comes in and works hard. It's great to see him get some success." Becker's goal came at the 11:00 mark in the first period. The puck danced around the Trapper goal wildly. Neither Trapper nor Aggie was able to get a solid stick on the puck until Becker fished it out and put it home. Becker's score was a product of determination and hard-nosed fight for the freshman. Utah State never trailed in Saturday's match, and the game was tied for no more than 18 seconds. Tyler Mistelbacher, filling in for suspended Matt Hamilton in the starting lineup, took a streaking shot off a bullet pass from Brendan MacDonald. Mistelbacher took the puck right down the throat of the Trapper defensive line and snuck it past the Trapper goalie to give USU a lead it would never relinquish. Shortly thereafter, USU scored again, but the Trappers weren't about to roll over. Trapper Chad Johnson took a pass from former Aggie Jimmy Schwer and buried the puck past USU keeper Cody Palmer to cut the lead to one. Schwer was on the Aggie roster until December, but is currently academically ineligible to play for the Aggies. However, Schwer still does practice with USU hockey. In Saturday's game, Schwer was active. He finished the game with two assists on the Trappers three goals. USU finished the first in good fashion, leading 5-2. Near the end of the first, the Trappers began to show frustration. They checked harder, skated faster and almost began a fight. The officials quickly quelled I See HOCKEY, page 9 Despite being down seven points with 4:20 remaining in the game, the Utah State women's basketball fought back and fell just short against New Mexico State, losing 5655 at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum on Saturday afternoon. Red-shirt freshman Banna Diop sank a 3pointer with 16 seconds left to give USU its first lead since the 2:16 mark of the first half, 55-54. With nine seconds remaining, Diop fouled Jasmine Lowe, who sunk both free throws to give the crimson Aggies the 56-55 lead. Junior guard Alice Coddington gave USU one more chance when she went coast-to-coast and just missed a layup with one second left on the clock. With this loss, the Aggies have now lost fourstraight games. NMSU snaps its three-game losing streak with the win. Utah State is now 10-9 overall and 2-4 in Western Athletic Conference action. New Mexico State improves to 13-7 overall and evens its WAC record to 3-3. USU junior guard Amber White recorded the first double-double of her career with a team-high 18 points and 10 rebounds. Fellow junior guard Alice Coddington was the only other Aggie in double fig- ures in scoring, bringing down 13 points and adding seven rebounds. NMSU was led by a game-high 23 points from Crystal Boyd, who also added a game-high 11 rebounds for a doubledouble. Boyd was the only Aggie in double figures, but NMSU had three players with nine points, Jasmine Lowe, Danisha Crobett and Madison Spence. Senior forward Nicole Johnson inched closer to breaking Jessica Freeman's record for career blocks. Johnson blocked three shots in the loss to the Aggies, giving her 122 career blocks. She is now just five blocks away from Freeman's career mark of 127 blocks. Both teams struggled shooting in the first half of action. NMSU finished the first stanza shooting 24.2 percent from the field (8of-33). USU shot a similar 25 percent from the field in the first half (7-of-28). Utah State did not put any points on the board until the 16:55 mark of the first half on two free throws from senior center Lydia Whitehead. The Aggies didn't make their first field goal until the 15:05 mark of the first half on a threepointer from freshman guard TJ Goddard. USU did use an 11-0 run to take an I See AG WOMEN, page 10 |
