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AGGIES KEEP IT CLOSE BUT FALL TO THE COUGARS
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Cougars continue winning streak over Aggies
Make it eight straight for the Cougars over the Aggies. BYU came up victorious Saturday night with a 68-64 win in Salt Lake City. Utah State hung with BYU the entire game but could never open up a sizeable lead. The Aggie faithful showed up in force to cheer on their team. About 2/3 of the crowd seemed to be Aggie fans.
Yoeli Childs led the way for the Cougars with 20 points and 10 rebounds. The Senior forward is a force to be reckoned with down low. Utah State did a pretty good job defensively double-teaming Childs nearly every time he touched the ball.
Senior guard TJ Haws had a big first half for the Cougars helping them take a 7 point lead into the break. Haws scored 13 of his 16 points in the first half. After the break Haws cooled down but still did a good job getting his teammates open and finished with 5 assists.
Utah Native, Abel Porter, played arguably his best game in an Aggie uniform. Porter finished with 13 points to go along with 2 rebounds and 4 assists. Porter played a whopping 37 out of the possible 40 minutes.
Alphonso Anderson certainly did his part against the Cougars last night. Anderson finished with 14 points and 4 rebounds. Anderson played a big part in helping the Aggies get back into the game in the second half. An extremely controversial moment in the game came when Anderson hit a three pointer while standing on the NBA three-point line. The referees were unable to notice the difference between the college three-point line and the NBA three-point line and awarded the Aggies only two points.
Sam Merrill played his final regular season game against BYU Saturday night. Merrill finished his career against BYU with a big fat goose egg in the win column. Growing up in Bountiful, about halfway between Logan and Provo, Merrill is no stranger to the importance of in-state games. Historically Merrill has been extremely underwhelming against the Cougars and last night was no exception. After the final buzzer rang Merrill finished with 11 points and 8 rebounds. 7 of his 11 points came from the free throw line. From the field Merrill shot an abysmal 2-10 including 0-4 from behind the arc.
The Aggies had a chance to take the lead with 45 seconds left but missed their chance when Justin Bean and Neemias Queta both missed layups. The Cougars hit a three on the ensuing possession pushing the lead to 68-64.
Sideline Notes:
Utah State will face BYU in the Spectrum next season.
Utah State will travel to Houston, TX to face USF on a neutral court and then to Sunrise, FL to face the Florida Gators next week.
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