A lethargic Utah State basketball team came alive in the last five minutes of regulation, just in time to capture a stunning 83-82 overtime victory over Cal State-Fullerton Saturday night in the Spectrum.
Kendall Youngblood hit an 8-foot, off-balance jumper in the lane with 6 seconds left to give the tired Aggies the unlikely victory. The Aggies had trailed the whole game and were down by 12 with just over six minutes left before rallying."I was proud of the way our guys hung in there and hung in there and hung in there," said USU Coach Kohn Smith. "I knew we were tired and we played that way. We were very sluggish. But we really made the plays when we had to."
Youngblood's winning shot came after CSF's Mark Hill, who led all scorers with 31 points, had sunk one of two free throws with 31 seconds left.
Utah State called timeout and set up a play that worked perfectly, only Darrel White didn't see Youngblood wide open in the middle at about the 15-second mark. So the Ags ran it again and this time Sean Lake hit Youngblood, who dribbled down the right side and made the winning shot.
"Even though I was off-balance, the game was on the line and I just had to concentrate on the shot," said Youngblood, who was fighting a case of the flu that began a day earlier.
After a CSF timeout at the 4-second mark, Wayne Williams drove up the floor and fired up an 18-footer at the buzzer that drew nothing but air.
"It's tough to lose when you play so well for 38 minutes," said Fullerton Coach John Sneed, whose team fell to 6-5 overall and 0-2 in the Big West. "I thought the crowd finally got in the game in the last two minutes and we got tight and I just couldn't relax them."
The Aggies, who have rotated three different point guards this year, tried something completely different the final five minutes that proved to make the difference between victory and defeat.
With 5:27 left and the score 73-64, Smith inserted Lake into the lineup for Allen Gordon. That meant the Aggies were essentially playing without a point guard, since the 6-5 Lake rarely plays at point with Gordon, Albert Chappell and Matt Barnes available. But Gordon and Barnes were ineffective and Chappell had injured his knee early in the second half.
Smith explained his unique strategy: "We really didn't need a point guard at that time because of the way they were playing. What we needed was a shooter against their zone."
After Rich Jardine made a tip-in and Jeff Parris scored on a follow shot, Lake knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the key to make it 74-71 with 3:13 left. More importantly, it awakened the nearly-comatose crowd of 8,624 that had been sitting on its hands all night.
A Williams lay-in, followed by a three-point play by Parris, made it 76-74 CSF. Then with 52 seconds left, Darrel White sank a 16-footer from the left angle to tie the score.
Fullerton had a chance to win it in regulation but Van Anderson missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with seven seconds left. After a USU timeout, Youngblood fumbled an in-bounds pass and couldn't get a shot off. But he redeemed himself a few minutes later with the game-winner. He gave credit elsewhere, however.
"Lake came in there and sparked us and was the reason we won the game," said Youngblood.
The first half was all Fullerton, as the Titans hit eight of their first nine shots en route to a 41-32 halftime lead. The biggest lead of the second half came with 8:46 left when a Cedric Ceballos layup made it 67-54.
Jardine, who kept the game from getting away from the Aggies with his early shooting, led the USU scoring with 22 points. Youngblood finished with 19, Parris had a season-high 15 points and White added 14.
"I felt bad for the fans who had to watch us play so lethargic for the first 30 minutes or so," said Smith. "But we probably gave them their money's worth the last few minutes."
The Aggies, who had just retunrned from a five-day trip to California Friday will get now an some much-needed rest. Their next game won't be until Saturday night against San Jose State in the Spectrum.