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Ray's rebound saves Aggies from a scare vs. Long Beach By
Jessica Johnson Rebounds can make or break a game, and luckily for the Utah State University Aggies a rebound helped them beat the Long Beach 49ers, 70, 66, Saturday in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. Senior Brennan Ray made the crucial rebound in the last few seconds and passed it to Tony Brown, whowas foulded and made two free throws to leave the Aggies on top. "I had to get that rebound. That's the only way I saw it," said Ray, who finished with eight points and six rebounds, including five on the offensive glass. "It would have been tough to handle two straight buzzer-beater losses." Brown and the team were relieved too that Ray was in the right place at the right time. "It's a good thing he got it," said the Aggie senior guard, who had 15 points, three assists and three steals. "When that came off (the rim), everybody lost their breath, and B-Ray luckily got it and then everybody just kind of had a nice, long sigh." Desmond Penigar got his second career double-double with a game-high 26 points and 11 rebounds as Utah State recovered from a five-point deficit with 12:37 to play and improved to 4-2 in the Big West and 12-3 overall. Long Beach State fell to 1-4 in league and 5-11 overall.. The Aggie defense had to double up on Long Beach's top players, Travis Reed and Rudy Williams, who shot 14 of 23 on the court. Reed ended the game with 18 points and Williams was a close second with 17. Reed and Williams have developed a great rapport and try to work together to lead the 49ers. "I was talking to Rudy Williams and Travis Reed, and they're both great guys. You can see the relationship that the have the way they pass it to each other. They look for each other and try to set each other up," Ray said. "We had no choice but to double their big guys," Aggie head coach Stew Morrill said. "We just had no choice. That's the risk you take, is leaving guys open in the perimeter and also it can really expose you on the boards. "Every time we went one-on-one down there, you saw what happened. It wasn't a pretty sight." Long Beach State coach Wayne Morgan said the rebounding could have changed the game. "We had a chance to win the game tonight, but offensive rebounds killed us," Morgan said. "The Aggies got a couple of really crucial offensive rebounds toward the end of the game. Those rebounds probably cost us the game." "This is probably the best game we have played all year," Morgan said. "We play well in spurts, we need to work on playing complete games." The Aggie defense was a little shaky after the loss Thursday night players and coaches agree. "Defense is a day-to-day proposition. We don't have the shot-blockers that we had last year. We don*t have the foot speed we had last year on the perimeter. So we have to be sound fundamentally," Morrill said. Ray said the defense has to improve with baby steps to get better.
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