Utah State Puts Stamp On Senior Night With 38-Point Win Over San Jose State
Feb 25, 2020, 11:14 PM
Courtesy of Utah State Athletics
LOGAN, Utah – The Utah State Aggies won their sixth straight game and sent their seniors out on a very positive note with a 94-56 win over San Jose State.
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Neemias Queta led the Aggies with a game-high 23 points along with 10 rebounds and 2 assists on 9-16 shooting from the field.
In his final home game of career, Sam Merrill dropped 18 points and 7 assists. He made 5 of his 12 attempts from the field including 4 of his 10 attempts from the three-point line.
Justin Bean also had a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds in 26 minutes.
Red-Hot First Half
Utah State couldn’t have asked for a better start to their final home game of the regular season. They jumped out to a 19-0 lead and never looked back. It’s their best start to a game since 2010 when they held a 22-0 lead over Fresno State (who had Paul George).
The Aggies outscored the Spartans 51-14 in the first half. As a team, they shot 18-36 for 50 percent from the field, 8-16 from beyond the arc and went 7-8 from the free throw line.
Both Merrill and Queta had 14 points apiece in the opening half, tying the team total of San Jose State.
The Spartans went 5-29 from the field in the first 20 minutes along with just 3-20 from the perimeter.
Utah State leads San Jose State 51-14 at the half!!! Fans should have done "Winning Team, Losing Team" and no one would have been mad. #AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/HD726pevEG
— Jeremiah Jensen (@JJSportsBeat) February 26, 2020
Seniors Played Well In Final Home Game
On top of the great performance by Sam Merrill in his final home game, fellow senior Diogo Brito started the game and finished with 6 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals while shooting 2-5 from the floor in 28 minutes on the court.
Redshirt junior Abel Porter, who was honored with the seniors had 6 points, 6 boards and 2 assists on 1-3 shooting from the three-point line in 20 minutes.
Roche Grootfaam recorded 4 points, 2 rebounds and one steal on 2-7 shooting. He put the exclamation point on the game with a thunderous dunk late in the second half.
.@USUBasketball senior Roche Grootfaam threw down a monster dunk on senior night and the Spectrum crowd went nuts. Utah State moves to 23-7, 12-5 with a 94-56 win over San Jose State #AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/PhdmeYSCiH
— Jeremiah Jensen (@JJSportsBeat) February 26, 2020
Utah State improved their record to 23-7 overall and 12-5 in Mountain West Conference play. They will play their final game of the regular season on Saturday at New Mexico. Tip-off is at 8 p.m. on CBS Sports Network.
