Aggies bounce back, even if it wasn't pretty

While WAC championship mania was taking over Logan, and even The Spectrum, we still had some basketball to played and revenge to be had!

Saturday's game in The Spectrum was once again nothing pretty, but as was the case with Idaho State, the Aggies did enough of what they needed to to win. I don't know if TAMCC just has USU's number or what, but that game went from a close one, then opened up to a blowout for a bit, then slowly got interesting again.

Looking at the stats, it's hard to see how the Islanders stayed into this game. USU outrebounded TAMCC by 10, had 21 assists to only nine turnovers, shot 56.8 percent from the field, and made 23 free throws. The Islanders made a handful of 3-pointers and only committed six turnovers, and that ended up being what made this close.

It seems like this Aggie team is coming along very slowly as far as execution is concerned. They don't seem to be getting too diverse offensively just yet, but it's generally safe to think that they will in time, and with the size and athleticism this team has, things are going to get good!

My only concern at this point is this team has seemed to play relative to its competition. They were sloppy against ISU and TAMCC, but looked threatening for much of the game against a very good Saint Mary's team. The kind of tendency is dangerous as a season wears on, and hopefully gets fixed as the team finds its footing.

In the meantime, while those hard lessons are being learned, every win is crucial. So, ugly as it may have been, the Aggies took care of business Saturday.

NOTES

• The 21 assists really are encouraging, especially with Tenale Roland having seven of them and not a single turnover! He redeemed himself from a poor shooting game against Saint Mary's to hit on 4-of-6 Saturday for nine points.
• The rest of his game is still a work in progress, but holy hell can Jordan Stone rebound!!! I'll take five points from him too.
• Spencer Butterfield has clearly established himself as Stew's ace off the bench early on, with nobody else on the bench really playing significant minutes just yet.
• Kyisean Reed had another monster dunk, which is pretty much tradition by now. Also another great game with 15 points, six rebounds and three blocks.
• Preston Medlin got things going in pretty much all aspects. He finished with 17 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals.
• Marcel Davis made one of the prettiest passes I've ever seen when he drove the baseline and dropped a semi-no look to Stone down low. Stone wasn't able to finish, but that pass by Davis was absolutely brilliant!! Kid's gonna be a stud I tell ya!!!

Player of the Game: Jarred Shaw

Another dominant effort by Shaw, showing that he's going to be a force down low this year. 17 points and seven rebounds will get the job done! He also shot 6-7 from the field and 5-6 from the free throw line. Dude is absolutely killin it so far, and it's going to be exciting to see when they tighten up the offense, because you know tons of those plays are going down low to him!