Utah State Basketball Update

Over the past three games Utah State has gone 3-3 posting wins over Air Force (73-46), San Jose State (78-62), UNLV (90-75), and losing games to Wyoming (78-76), vs Nevada (85-72), and San Diego State (75-58).

The Aggies currently rank 7th in the Mountain West conference and currently stand at 15-12 on the season, 6-8 in conference play.

The leading scorers against Air Force were Brandon Horvath, who scored 17 points on 7/8 shooting (88%) and Justin Bean, who had 17 points on 6-8 shooting, 4-4 from the free throw line. He also had nine rebounds, and led the team in assists with seven and had five turnovers. Bean had nine rebounds, three assists, a steal, and a block. Sean Bairstow had 15 points on 7-10 shooting and also had a rebound and two turnovers. Steven Ashworth scored 10 points on 2-5 shooting and had 11 rebounds, five assists, and three blocks. Justin Bean had 18 points on 7-16 shooting, and had 11 rebounds, five assists, a steal, and a block. RJ Eytle-Rock had 11 rebounds, four rebounds, two assists, and a steal.

In the 90-75 win over UNLV, the leading scorer was Justin Bean, who had a season high 32 points for the Aggies on 11-15 shooting, where he also made five threes. He also had 10 rebounds, three assists, and a steal. Brandon Horvath had 17 points on 5-8 shooting and had three rebounds, nine rebounds, five assists, and a block. Steven Ashworth and Sean Bairstow both had 14 points on 6-10 shooting and 6-8 shooting respectively. Ashworth had two rebounds, seven assists, and four personal fouls. Bairstow had four rebounds and a turnover.

In a 78-76 overtime loss at Wyoming, Horvath was the leading scorer with 20 points on 9-17 shooting. He also had eight rebounds, six assists, and three turnovers. Bean had 14 points on 6-12 shooting and had 11 rebounds, two assists, two steals, a block, four turnovers, and four personal fouls. Ashworth had 16 points on 5-9 shooting and had four rebounds, an assist, and three personal fouls. Bean had 14 points off of 6-12 shooting and also had 11 rebounds, two assists, two steals, a block, four personal fouls, and four turnovers.

In an 85-72 loss to Nevada at home, the leading scorer was Horvath with 29 points on 9-15 shooting, going 11-14 from the free throw line. He also had eight rebounds, two assists, and four turnovers and four personal fouls. Bean scored 16 points on 7-15 shooting and added nine rebounds, two assists, two steals, a block, a turnover, and a personal foul. RJ Eytle-Rock had nine points on 3-7 shooting and had three rebounds, an assist, a turnover, and three personal fouls. Rylan Jones came off the bench and put up 11 points on 4-6 shooting and had two rebounds, six assists, two turnovers, and five personal fouls.

In a 75-56 blowout loss to San Diego State, Justin Bean put up 18 points on 7-14 shooting and had eight rebounds, four assists, two steals, a block. two turnovers, and a personal foul. Brandon Horvath struggled on 3 for 10 shooting, putting up 10 points, and had four rebounds, an assist, and three turnovers. Sean Bairstow had nine points on 4-7 shooting and had two rebounds, two turnovers, and two personal fouls.

Overall, the Aggies have struggled offensively and need to find more consistency, especially against a very good Boise State defense on Saturday. After the Boise State game, the next hardest team on the schedule is at home against Colorado State. As of right now, Utah State is looking at a lower seed in the Mountain West tournament, which isn’t a good thing for a team that is going to be looking to make the March Madness tournament. When the offense is clicking the Aggies are tough competition so Utah State will be trying to turn a three game losing streak into wins over the next couple games.