Utah State basketball team buries Colorado State with dominant first half

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LOGAN, Utah — The chant thundered down from the student section.

“UP BY 20!” the Utah State Hurd roared.

The gleeful taunt came less than 7 minutes into Tuesday’s game as the Aggies hosted the Colorado State men’s basketball team.

That, really, tells the story.

The Rams were swamped by a deluge of turnovers and Utah State 3-pointers from the start in a 93-85 loss at The Spectrum.

“Our start to the game was ultimately why we lost,” CSU star Nique Clifford said.

Here are takeaways from the game.

Everything wrong at the start

Coaches would have had a checklist of things CSU (15-9, 9-4 Mountain West) had to do to steal a road win at Utah State (22-3, 12-2 MW).

It’s safe to guess the Rams did virtually the opposite of those to start the game.

Utah State is first in the conference and top 25 in the nation in steals and the Aggies tend to make those turnovers become points. So, goal No. 1 for CSU is to not turn the ball over.

First possession: CSU is stripped, leading to a Utah State layup. Second possession: CSU throws the ball out of bounds.

The Rams had five turnovers in the first 5 minutes. Utah State was up 19-0 in points off turnovers at one point in the first half.

Goal No. 2: Not let a streaky Utah State team get hot from deep early. First Utah State possession: Ian Martinez 3-pointer.

Then another and another and another…Utah State had six 3-pointers in less than six minutes. The Aggies hit their first seven from deep.

“That’s the two things we emphasized. They’re one of the best shooting teams in our league, so we needed to take away 3’s,” Clifford said. “We had too many miscues and they got open shots and they made them. Then, early on we were turning the ball over and it got them easy points. That’s what they do, especially in this building.”

As you can imagine, the turnover and 3-point barrage did not set CSU up well early on.

The Rams were down 27-7 (leading to the “up by 20” chant) just 6:53 into the game. Utah State led by as many as 23 points (36-13) in…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/utah-state-basketball-team-buries-062101186.html

Author : The Coloradoan

Publish date : 2025-02-12 06:21:00

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