Stew
wins No. 400 on national TV
ANATOMY OF
A THREE-POINTER: Cass Matheus, left, sets the
pick as Jaycee Caroll gets free beyond the three-point
line. Carroll took the assist from Nate Harris (4) and
knocked down the first of his decisive, back-to-back
treys. / Photo by Robert McDaniel
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By G. Christopher Terry
January 31, 2006 | Utah State
kept Hawaii winless on the road before a packed
house Monday night in the Smith Spectrum. The
63-52 victory was freighted with significance
-- it was Coach Stew Morrill's 400th career triumph,
it avenged an earlier loss to the Warriors, and
it was all broadcast live nationwide on ESPN.
The official attendance figure for the game
was 9,540. Assuredly, none of the 730 empty seats
were in the rambunctious Aggie Student Section,
which resembled an undulating wall of Aggie Blue
and Fighting White.
"Our people came out," Morrill said."It
was nice to see that we had a lot of people stay
up. The students were unbelievable." |
The Quotable Stew Morrill
"It's a very good win for us. We're
tickled about it. Tired. Tired tickled. I talked
to [Hawaii Coach] Riley Wallace before the game
and I said, 'Old guys like you and me are usually
in bed by now.'"
"If you'd have seen our game in
Hawaii you would say it's a stark improvement
from that ballgame. We battled, we were pretty
dang good defensively."
"We've always enjoyed being on TV.
The fans enjoy it, the students enjoy it, our
players seem to enjoy it, and they should. They
shouldn't get uptight and not have fun. It should
be fun."
"I should try to find more significance
in it than I do. I'm just worried about the next
one, No. 401. You do reflect a little bit on all
the people that have helped you win basketball
games. I've been very fortunate to have a lot
of great assistant coaches and a lot of very good
players through the years. . . . At three different
schools, so I feel pretty lucky about that."
(Do any of those 400 wins stand out?)
"This one. The one that's most recent always
stands out. By tomorrow, you're sweating the next
one and trying to figure out how to compete."
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One has to believe the talking heads
at ESPN were impressed with the ASS's audition for more
home games on the network next year, especially coming
off an ESPN game at Nevada in which the arena was half
full.
"You contrast [the crowd] to Monday at Nevada,"
Morrill said about his cheering section for number 400,
"where they had 5,000."
Nate Harris, the game's leading scorer with 19, said,
"We definitely always feed off of the crowd. They
came out right from the beginning, they were here at
9 o'clock tonight [for a 10 p.m. tipoff] ready to go."
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Harris also led the Aggies in rebounding with
11 and played excellent defense, as did all of
the Aggies. Julian Sensely, the Warriors' senior
star, was held to 14 points and turned it over
four times.
Sensely settled for a lot of jumpers for a 6-foot-9
guy being guarded by 6-f0ot-3 Durrall Peterson
most of the night, attempting only one shot from
the paint all game and no layups or dunks.
Junior guard Matt Lojeski scored nine points,
the first time in nine games he failed to score
in double figures. As a team Hawaii shot 38.2
percent from the field and 21.1 percent on threes
while USU was hitting 44 and 47.4 from the respective
distances. |
HOW DOES
IT FEEL?: Stew Morrill gets interviewed
by ESPN about his 400th career win.
/ Photo
by Robert McDaniel
|
When a freak power accident dimmed the Spectrum with
39.7 seconds to go, the Aggies' accuracy helped inspire
an apropos chant from the ASS -- "We Shot Lights
Out" -- during the brief delay.
A big part of the Aggies' success from long range was
senior guard Chris Huber, who had a perfect shooting
night, nailing three threes and sinking two free throws.
"Hubie's really playing solid and he's taking
good shots, wide-open shots," said Morrill of the
Garland native. "He's a veteran senior player coming
off the bench and giving us really solid play. And he's
very comfortable shooting the ball when he's open. He's
not trying to take too many shots, just trying to play
within the framework of our offense, and he's doing
a fabulous job."
Harris gave the Aggies a 20-point lead at the 17:07
mark of the second half, but it was fleeting against
the Warriors, who used tenacious offensive rebounding
to get within seven. That, Morrill said, was Jaycee
Carroll's cue.
"Carroll hit some shots. We ran a play for him
and he knocked one down so we ran another play for him
and he hit another one. We were struggling scoring right
then and those were big shots."
Carroll's first three essentially ended the Warriors'
threat, as they never got within single digits again.
The flustered visitors called a timeout only to have
the sophomore rip another three immediately after play
resumed, bringing the Spectrum to jet-takeoff noise
levels.
Harris said Morrill's landmark win "shows that he's
a great coach. He's been doing this a long time and
he knows what he's doing."
Morrill considers himself a bit busy to spend too much
time reflecting on the big victory.
"We've got the road-trip from hell coming up. This
is not a Big West road trip coming up in terms of travel,
it's brutal."
USU travels to face 4-3 New Mexico State on Thursday,
followed by a crucial WAC rematch against Louisiana
Tech on Saturday. The Aggies average 10 points fewer
a game on the road. ESPN cameras will be watching again
as the Aggies try and make it a season sweep of Paul
Millsap's WAC-leading team.
Nate Harris leaps for a rebound. / Photo by Robert
McDaniel
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