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Show StatesmanSports Page 10 Monday, Oct. 31, 2011 Aggies cruise past Tritons, 74-42 BY TYLER HUSKINSON assistant sports editor The Utah State men's basketball team cruised to an easy victory over the University of California-San Diego in its first exhibition game Friday. Brockeith Pane finished with 12 points and three others finished in double-figure scoring as the Aggies defeated the Tritons, 74-42, at the Dee Glenn Smith Spectrum. For USU head coach Stew Morrill, the exhibition served its purpose. "In these exhibition games, all you can play is non-DI schools," Morrill said. "The other thing you can do is scrimmage and not have a crowd. You take your pick there. "I thought it was good to get everybody some minutes," Morrill added. When we get a chance to evaluate the film, we'll know more. We played hard. We made some mistakes, but I'm glad we played hard." USU played solid offensively, shooting 54 percent from the field and 58 percent from the 3-point line. The Aggies shot 7 of 20 from the freethrow line, which is one of the many spots where the Aggies feel they can improve. "We've still got a long way to go," Pane said. "That wasn't very good competition. I think we can get better. Six for 20 from the free-throw line is something we can get better at. At halftime we were losing the rebound battle, so that's something we can get better at, but otherwise I think we played good." USU went on an 11-0 run to start the game and never looked back. Preston Medlin hit three of his 10 points as part of that run, and Pane came up with a steal and easy layup. UC-San Diego was without two of its best players, and despite the victory Morrill had some concerns. "My biggest concern, we were being out-rebounded at half," he said. "We barely out-rebounded this team and this is not a WAC team. In our ability to guard, we lost a lot of stoppers, and they got a lot of good looks out of their stuff and didn't make them." Brady Jardine finished the night on 5-of-7 shooting from the field and grabbed seven rebounds, while Adam Thoseby finished with 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field and 2-of-3 shooting from the 3-point range. The Aggies led by as much as 38 points in the second half off a jumper from Medlin, and UC-San Diego head coach Chris Carlson left impressed by the new-look Aggies. "I know there's been a lot of talk on Utah State and the newness of the program," c said, "but I'd hate to have to come play them in January, I can tell you that. "They did a lot of good things tonight, a lot of good things that we weren't quite up to the task on, in terms of guarding especially," he said. "They are a very well-coached group, and they're going to be fine. Logan, Utah, doesn't need to worry about the Aggies." Defense still remains the main concern, despite USU's ability to score easily. "We had a lot of different guys in double-figure points," Pane said. "Brady is going to play a big role in what we do. We've got a lot of people that can score. We've got a lot of people that can put the ball in the hole, but that's not our main focus. We're going to get wins by getting stops and getting rebounds and running the break." In the end, the scrimmage served it's purpose for Morrill and his team. "In our scrimmages," Morrill said, "we've been making close to 80 percent, and that tells you a lot of the jitters the new guys have and some of the veterans have, even." Questions still remain as to who will get playing time for the Aggies. Morrill rotated 12 players into the lineup against the Tritons, which is something he hasn't done very often. Last season the Aggies had an eight-man rotation. "It's hard when you're playing 12 guys," he said. "You're just running guys in and out. I've only done this four or five times in my career. I've got so many new guys, I've got to get them time and see what they can do." - ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu From Page 9 SENIOR BROCKEITH PANE drives past UC-San Diego guard Matt Bailey at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum Friday night. Pane scored 10 points and dished out four assists in USU's 74-42 victory. CODY GOCHNOUR photo From Page 9 Cross-country continues dominance thing for us, because we've been on uneven courses most of the year. We took control of the race pretty early and got our team in front." Following an injuryridden, second-place finish last season, McKenna said, to get the victory this year was "really sweet." "As I crossed the finish line and looked, everybody looked like they'd put out a pretty good effort," McKenna said. "I think Coach couldn't be more happy about what we did. USU head coach Greg Gensel said his team executed a great plan to get the win. "That was pretty awesome," Gensel said. "Brian's plan was to take it out hard and make the people that were racing him work hard at the beginning of the race. He knew coming from altitude that he would have the ability to recover from that, and he was hoping they — coming from sea level — wouldn't be able to recover, and that's exactly what happened." The men's team finished with 35 points and narrowly edged out New Mexico State's 47 and Idaho's 59. Senior Daniel Howell finished fourth, in 25:32.5, and sophomore Kyle McKenna took fifth, with a time of 25:43.8. "It was pretty close, but we ran a great race," Gensel said. "Brian was able to pull out the win, and our other guys ran well enough to get us a team win. We have some good runners on our team." Gensel also won the WAC Coach of the Year award for the sixth time in the last seven seasons. "The thing that speaks for that is the quality of the runners that we get — both as people and as athletes," Gensel said. "They're great student-athletes. They're quality people. That's a base to continue having success when you have those kind of people." The women's team finished third in an even closer race than the men's. Idaho won with 38 points and New Mexico State took second with 53. Running without their No. 1 Hannah Williams, due to an injury sustained Wednesday, the USU women's team took third with 60 points. Senior Ruth Hilton finished as USU's top finisher, in ninth place, with a time of 18:59.3 The Aggies had a 16-second spread between their top five finishers, which Gensel said was "pretty phenomenal." "(Williams) was here trying to get ready to run and she just couldn't go," Gensel said. "The other girls stepped it up and ran really good and ended up running a great race as a team. They could have tanked it. They could have said 'Oh, our No. 1 runner's not here, we're not going to do it as good as a team,' but they did a great job in the way they raced. I was proud of them." The Utah State crosscountry teams will next compete in the NCAA Mountain Region Championships Nov. 12 in Orem, in hopes of qualifying for the NCAA national meet Nov. 21. - tavin.stucki@aggiemail.usu. edu From Page 9 Part Time Snowsports Instructors Wanted! Hiring Clinic Wednesday November 2 7-9 p.m. HPER Room 118 Positions are available for Alpine and Telemark Skiing and Snowboarding. beaver C:l mountain Call 753-0921 for information. Volleyball drops Techsters Sophomore outside hitter Tamua Entimani came up with a big block to put the set away, and the Aggies completed the sweep, 25-22. With the win, Utah State improves to 6-5 in WAC play, and 11-13 on the year. The Lady Techsters fall to a WAC-worst, 0-10, while dropping to 9-18 on the season. The Aggies travel to Orem this week to play a nonconference match against the Wolverines of Utah Valley University Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. USU then returns home for Senior Night, playing host to Idaho University Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. "We want to get a lot of momentum going into the conference tournament," DuBose said. "So that we're confident and can move forward." - curtis.lundstrom@aggiemail. usu.edu Soccer wins back-to-back WAC titles saves on the day. Flanary came into the match needing three points to tie the Utah State scoring record set by Lauren Hansen. Flanary's goal four minutes into the second half left her just one point shy, at 83. Flanary put on a dribbling exhibition, carving up the Spartan defense before rocketing her 10th goal of the season past Maiwald, into the bottomright corner of the net. Tarver came in off the bench midway through the first half and immediately made her presence felt. On her first touch, Tarver dribbled through a pair of SJSU defenders and rifled a shot on goal. Maiwald got a touch on the shot and pushed the ball wide of the net. Tarver didn't waste her second chance. In the 83rd minute Tarver capitalized, taking a ball from a Spartan defender in the attacking half, dribbled across the top of the six-yard box and put a well-placed shot into the bottom-right corner of the net. It was Tarver's first goal of her collegiate career. "It was amazing. I've been wanting it for so long," Tarver said. "It's great to finally put it away." The win set up the showdown with Fresno State Sunday, in a winner-take-all match. Trailing Utah State by two points in the WAC standings, the Bulldogs needed a win to capture the regular season title. Conversely, a win or a tie would seal the deal for USU. The Bulldogs seemed to come out playing with urgency, determined to come away on top. Senior goalkeeper Molli Merrill would have none of it. Merrill, who holds the best goals-against percentage in the WAC, came up with five saves for the Aggies, including a huge save in the final 20 seconds of overtime. Fresno State's senior midfielder Molli Nizzoli suddenly found herself in the middle of the 18-yard box with the ball and plenty of space. Nizzoli torpedoed a shot at the bottom-left corner of the goal, and it appeared to be on it's way into the net as the Bulldog bench started celebrating. Merrill made a near-impossible save to thwart Fresno State's last-gasp attempt at the win, and the Aggies were able to come away with the tie, and the regular season title. Merrill was bombarded by the Bulldog's offense consistently, especially in the waning moments of regulation and overtime. Fresno State was unable to capitalize on two corner kicks in the final 30 seconds of regulation, and while the Aggies had their chances in overtime, the Bulldogs weren't letting up. Cairns spoke highly of her senior goalkeeper's effort. "Every save Molli made today was a game-changing save," Cairns, who is now in her eighth season as head coach, said. "She was huge in the game today. I think we owe a lot of our success to her." Merrill and fellow seniors Chandra Salmon-Christensen, Shantel Flanary, Summer Tillotson and Marissa Sanchez have left a legacy for future Aggies to follow. SalmonChristensen said that was a goal of she and her fellow players had coming into the program. "I think we came in with the attitude that we wanted to have an impact — we wanted to leave our mark on the program," Salmon-Christensen said. "We wanted to make a good program great. I think we've left our mark, and it feels really good." With the regular season finished, the Aggies now prepare for the WAC Tournament in Reno, Nevada, Nov. 4-6, where they will be the No. 1 seed. "I think it gives us a little bit of a target on our backs going into the WAC tournament," Salmon-Christensen said, "which feels really nice. Our team is the type of team that loves a challenge. We love rising to a challenge, we love the opportunity going in as regular season champions." - curtis.lundstrom@aggiemail. usu.edu From Page 9 RSL scores three goals against Seattle go in or (Saborio) was going to tap it in. Saborio struck again in the 53rd minute when he deflected a Morales pass from the 6-yard box, behind his own and Seattle defender Jeff Parke's back, with a heel kick toward the net and in. "I think that it's taken me a long time to come back like normal," Morales said. "I'm really happy for the team. I think it's a very good win. We won, so 2-0 we come to win. The match was almost completely dominated by Real Salt Lake. Keller saved eight of RSL's 11 shots on goal. Seattle did not put a single shot on frame. Morales was credited with two assists in the match and appears to be close to, if not at his pre-injury form but was still subbed out of the game. Grabavoy came into the match for Morales in the second half. The 5-foot-7 American midfielder added the extra insurance goal, in the 88th minute, on an unassisted rocket of a shot, after the Seattle defense cleared a cross out of the box. Kreis was wary about the injuries of both his center backs Jameson Olave and Nat Borchers, but said he also hopes the team will not look too much into the win and forget about the second half of the showdown. "We're also very cognisant of it only being halftime," Kreis said. "There's another match in Seattle. We know how difficult it is to play there. We're going to need 90 more minutes of very committed soccer to make sure we advance from this round." - tavin.stucki@aggiemail.usu. edu |