LOGAN — Utah State coach Stew Morrill wanted to see a little Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in his clean-cut, Mr. Nice Guy basketball team.
The Aggies showed somewhat of a transformation in their 86-54 season-opening win over Fort Lewis College on Friday night, but it wasn't the type of change Morrill was looking for.
With two minutes left in the first half, the Aggies were shooting more than 80 percent from the field, 71.4 percent from the 3-point line and 100 percent from the foul line.
Defensively, the Aggies (1-0) held the Skyhawks to just 28 points in outrebounding Fort Lewis 21-9 while blocking five shots.
The Aggies led 55-28 at the half.
With numbers that good, one can only expect some sort of drop off, but Utah State's decline in the second half was a little more than Morrill would have liked.
"I don't expect a drop-off. I'm still in search of the perfect basketball game," Morrill said. "In the second half I thought we had a lot of lapses and didn't play as well."
Utah State senior guard Mark Brown agreed.
"Maybe because we were up so much (at the half) we were a little relaxed," he said.
Utah State shot just 40 percent (10-of-25) in the second half. The Aggies did hold the Skyhawks to 31.3 percent shooting in the second half, one percentage point less than in the first half.
"We had one pretty good half and then relaxed," Morrill said.
Morrill and Brown were quick to point out, they can't allow that to happen when they meet Weber State in Ogden on Tuesday.
Utah State held the Skyhawks scoreless for nearly five minutes while building a 13-0 lead.
Last week in a win over Hawaii-Hilo, the Aggies jumped out to an 11-0 lead before letting the Vulcans back into the game.
With the Skyhawks, the Aggies didn't allow a first-half comeback in putting away the Div. II opponent.
Spencer Nelson was 4-for-4 in the first half en route to 12 of his game-high 16 points. Chad Evans and Nate Harris were also perfect as the Aggies hit on 22-of-28 first-half shots.
Eleven of Utah State's players played in the first half and nine of them scored at least four points. By the game's end, all 13 Aggies played.
The Skyhawks, who looked more like a 6-foot-4 and under team, with only two players taller than 6-foot-6, never mounted any sort of threat in the second half.
With two foul shots by Mike Ahmad midway through the second half, the Aggies built their largest lead of 36 points at 74-38.
Besides Nelson, four other Aggies scored in double figures. Cardell Butler followed with 12 points; Quenton Harvey and John Neil had 11 each and Nate Harris finished with 10 points. Ian McVey pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds. Nelson and Brown had four assists each.
Derek Yutzy led Fort Lewis with 12 points.
E-mail: jhinton@desnews.com