| You
know it's an ugly game when Aggie fans cheer for 'Headband'
in defeat of SDSU 
HERE'S A TIP: Chaz Spicer
gets an easy lay-in against the Jackrabbits. / Photo
by Robert McDaniel
By G. Christopher Terry
|
January 29, 2006 | With about
13 minutes to go in the Aggies' 72-51 win over
South Dakota State Friday night, the Smith Spectrum
crowd began chanting, "We want headband!"
in an effort to get SDS Coach Scott Nagy to put
in a backup guard with questionable taste in headgear.
|
The Quotable Stew Morrill
(To open the postgame
press conference) "Questions?
I don't have comments."
"Maybe I'm just, I dunno, maybe
I've lost it. It's very possible. I've been doing
this for a long time, it makes you a little wacked."
|
Some of the turncoat fans might have been disappointed
in their team's inconsistent play; others were likely
bored watching a game against a non-conference foe in
its second year of Division I ball -- a game in which
the Aggies never trailed.
When Andy Kleinjan, the young man from South Dakota
who wore the upside-down Adidas headband, came to midcourt
awaiting a deadball to sub in, the stands exploded as
they hadn't since the beginning, when the Aggies were
running to a 13-1 lead.
|
USU Coach Stew Morrill said, "We played
last Monday, and they just played two nights ago,
and we looked like we were the sluggish ones."
USU's Jaycee Carroll led all scorers with 18
points on 6-of-13 shooting and was second in rebounding
for USU with five.
Carroll, who also had four steals, said, "It
felt good to hit my first shot, then hit my second
shot. It felt like things were going to start
rolling and start coming again. I still kind of
had a little stretch there where I missed a few
shots in a row but it's gonna happen; you miss
some shots. Hopefully you make more than you miss."
Nate Harris, David Pak and Cass Matheus (three
blocked shots, six rebounds) were the other double-figure
scorers for the Aggies with 15, 10 and 14 respectively.
Pak's shot was falling as he hit 5-of-6 from the
field and dished out seven assists with some "And
One" streetball-type moves.
The Aggies held the Jackrabbits to 33.3 percent
shooting while hitting 54 percent themselves,
and outrebounded the Rabbits 37-27.
Thorughout the year, South Dakota State's top
scorer had been freshman Matt Cadwell, averaging
16.1 points a game. Cadwell was 1-of-10 against
the likes of Carroll, Pak and Chris Huber, and
the Rabbits didn't hit any field goal until 4:31
had elapsed from the clock.
|
Spicer and Nate Harris (4)
converge under the basket.
/ Photo by Robert McDaniel |
Yet the Aggies turned the ball over 15 times and South
Dakota State refused to go away.
Morrill: "We'll have to play a lot better on Monday
[against Hawaii] to be in the game. And that's no disrespect
to South Dakota State. They just kept playing and plugging
and we get up 20 and they cut it down and play hard.
They run some really great stuff. That guy [Nagy] has
done a good job there for a long time."
Monday night the Aggies will be looking to avenge
a 69-59 loss to Hawaii's Rainbow Warriors in December.
The game will be televised to a national audience on
ESPN, the Aggies' second game on the network in seven
days.
Harris said that after the Warriors "took care
of us pretty good at their place" the Aggies will
be ready for Hawaii. "We'll try and match their
physicality," he said.
Carroll said, "The last few games I've got some
open shots and just kind of had a stretch where I've
missed a few. If you miss a few, that means you've got
to make a lot coming up next," which could be bad
news for Hawaii.
Shortly after checking in, Kleinjan contributed two
three-pointers to spark a late Rabbit run that cut the
Aggie lead to 12 with 6:53 to go.
It is a measure of the malaise that filled the Spectrum
Friday night that the Aggie Student Section cheered
loudly for "headband's" baskets.
MS
MS |
