Logan • For once this season, the BYU Cougars didn’t blow out an opponent in a win. But they stayed historically dominant against the Utah State Aggies.
The Cougars beat the Utah State Aggies 67-64 on Saturday at the Spectrum in front of a limited but spirited crowd. BYU has now beaten USU in 10 of the last 11 meetings between the two.
“The whole second half, I felt like we brought it all 20 minutes,” Aggies guard Marco Anthony said. “But unfortunately that wasn’t enough for us to pull off the win.”
Senior guard Alex Barcello led the Cougars with 23 points on 6-of-8 shooting and 9-of-11 from the free-throw line. Freshman forward Caleb Lohner added 11 points and six rebounds.
Junior center Neemias Queta had a team-high 18 points for the Aggies, who fell to 1-3 on the season. Guard Marco Anthony contributed 17 points and seven rebounds, while freshman guard Rollie Worster had 15 points and five assists.
Cougars guard Connor Harding broke a 61-61 tie with a corner 3-pointer with 57 seconds remaining. Aggies freshman guard Rollie Worster had the opportunity to the tie game at 65 with 12 seconds left, but he split the free throws.
Worster missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer that could have sent the game to overtime.
The game stood tied at 60 for about two minutes before Cougars center Matt Haarms split two free throws. Aggies center Neemias Queta split two of his own to tie the game back at 61 all.
The Aggies down the stretch were able to get stops on defense. In the second half, USU held BYU to just 30.8% shooting.
But Utah State just couldn’t get over the hump.
“We were just missing shots,” Anthony said. “I feel like all the shots that we took were good, were great shots. Unfortunately they just didn’t go into the basket. That happens sometimes.”
Storylines
• Alex Barcello leads BYU with 23 points, while Neemias Queta has 18 for USU.
• Aggies had several opportunities to tie the game in final minute.
• BYU wins second consecutive game after losing to USC.
BYU wasn’t its usual self when it came to 3-point shooting. The Cougars shot only 36.4% from that distance.
But perhaps the main difference in the game was at the free-throw line. The Cougars made 15 of 19. Utah State made 20, but missed nine — some of those in the waning seconds of the game.
The Aggies started strong, building a 12-6 lead early in the first half. The Cougars took the lead for the first time at 21-20 after Spencer Johnson’s pull-up 3-pointer, and used a 9-2 run to take a 39-29 lead into the second half.
“At the end of the day, our first half just wasn’t good enough,” said Utah State assistant coach Eric Peterson, who manned the sidelines in place of Craig Smith, who is recovering from COVID-19.
The Cougars improved to 5-1 on the season with home games against Boise State and the University of Utah coming up.
BYU coach Mark Pope praised Utah State’s performance.
“Every time you come to Logan, it was an adventure beyond adventures,” Pope said. “The outcome is always 100 percent uncertain, unless they end up running you out of the gym. What an unbelievable performance by their team.”
Anthony said he was encouraged by the way the Aggies played against BYU.
“We’re hurt because we lost,” Anthony said. “But we see the positives as well.”
