LOGAN — The Aggies’ late-season surge continued with a 78-58 rout of last-place Wyoming on Wednesday night at the Spectrum.
Utah State (11-5 in the Mountain West, 22-7 overall) has won five straight games and eight of their last nine to maintain its second-place spot in the Mountain West standings heading into this weekend’s bye.
“It got a little sloppy at the start of the game and midway through the second half, but I thought for the most part we played great,” USU junior guard Abel Porter said. “We had good energy and a good feel to us tonight. (Justin) Bean and Neemi (Queta) were beasts on the boards tonight, and that was great for us. And Sam (Merrill) had an all-around great game.
“Wyoming kind of makes things messy when you play them, and that happened again tonight.”
Utah State guard Sam Merrill went 9 of 13 from the field, 3 for 6 from 3-point range and 5 for 5 from the free-throw line on his way to a game-high 26 points — more than enough points to vault him past former Cowboy Justin James (2,061 points) and into fourth-place on the Mountain West’s all-time career scoring list with 2,078 points.
Sophomore forward Justin Bean was a force on the inside for the Aggies, compiling his 14th double-double of the season, scoring 20 points while pulling down 14 rebounds.
Center Neemias Queta added eight points and 15 rebounds for the Aggies, meaning that he and Bean combined for 29 of USU’s 42 rebounds, and that the pair of sophomores outrebounded Wyoming (25 rebounds) all by themselves.
“Sam was really good ... Bean was outstanding, and Neemi had eight and 15,” USU head coach Craig Smith noted. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a box score with two guys on the same team with 15 and 14 rebounds. Certainly that was a huge piece of the game.”
Porter, who has been hampered by back issues the past couple of months, scored 10 points for the Aggies, marking the first time since Jan. 23 that the former Davis High star had scored in double figures in a game — and all 10 of those points came at a key point in the first half as the Aggies took the lead for good.
“I told him in the locker room that he really got us rolling tonight,” Smith said of Porter. “... He had that layup and a couple of threes in the first half, and we need that out of him. Abel’s a good player, and I thought he was just aggressive. His mindset was really, really good.”
“He got really sick the other night (at Fresno State) about 20 minutes after he got to the arena, and he didn’t play in the second half. So, we told him he should have been really good and fresh,” Smith added with a smile.
Utah State’s season sweep of Wyoming (1-14, 6-21) didn’t come quite as easily as the final score suggests, primarily thanks to 16 turnovers. The Aggies, who were up 47-32 at halftime, built a 20-point lead on two occasions early in the second half, but the Cowboys managed to trim USU’s advantage down to just 10 points with 6:52 to go.
But as they’ve done repeatedly in recent weeks, the Aggies finished the game strong, outscoring the Cowboys 18-8 down the stretch.
“We got a little sloppy tonight for sure, but (Wyoming) can kind of mix it up and make the game look that way,” Smith said. “But at the end of the day, we took care of business. We go into our last bye, a six-day spread. It will be good for us, we’ll hopefully tighten a few things up and keep pressing forward.”
Utah State, which won’t play again until its regular-season home finale against San Jose State on Feb. 25, shot an even 50% from the floor as a team and were 15 for 17 at the free-throw line. The Aggies were 7 for 20 from 3-point range as Brock Miller’s shooting struggles continued, with the sophomore guard going 0 for 5 from long range and 0 for 7 overall.
TJ Taylor (16 points) and Greg Milton (10 points) were the only two Cowboys to reach double figures, while former Sky View High standout Jake Hendricks was 2 for 8 from the field and finished with eight points in his final game back in Cache Valley.
Wyoming, which has dropped four straight games and 12 of their last 13, shot just 36.8% for the game, but head coach Allen Edwards still liked the effort from his team.
“I know what the score said, but I thought our guys fought tonight,” Edwards said. “There was an opportunity there with about seven minutes left to cut it to nine points. This could have easily been very lopsided, but I felt like our guys continued to dig in and move the basketball.”