Merrill Leads Aggies To Dominating Win Over UNLV
Feb 2, 2019, 6:03 PM
(Rick Parker, USU Athletics)
(Rick Parker, USU Athletics)
LOGAN, Utah – The Utah State Aggies continued their dominance inside the Spectrum with an 82-65 win over UNLV.
Sam Merrill led the way with a game-high 20 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists for the Aggies. Diogo Brito chipped in 15 points and 5 rebounds off the bench.
Utah State Neemias Queta was a force in the paint with 10 points, 16 rebounds and 3 blocks.
The Aggies knocked down 10 of their 23 attempts from downtown for 43 percent and hit 49 percent from the field.
For the Rebels, Joel Ntambwe dropped 18 points, Kris Clyburn and Amauri Hardy each scored 14 points. UNLV shot 36 percent from the field and 37 percent from beyond the arc.
Team Effort For Dominate First Half
The Aggies had a good start after UNLV scored the first bucket of the game as they went on an 8-0 run. Utah State had an 8-5 lead, just four minutes into the game.
After a 19-7 lead for Utah State, UNLV answered with a 6-0 run to trim the lead to 6.
With seven minutes left, the Aggies stretched the lead to 12 points on a 5-0 run to have a 32-20 advantage.
Utah State was up big at halftime, 48-28.
Merrill scored 12 points in the opening half while Abel Porter and Brito had 9 points apiece and Queta already had 13 rebounds to go with his 7 points and 3 blocks.
Feed THE MAN!#AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/OHCJwM57Ev
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) February 2, 2019
Aggies Cruise To Win
In the second half, the Aggies jumped out to their biggest lead of the game with a 54-33 advantage just four minutes in the period.
UNLV couldn’t maintain their momentum when they cut the lead to 14 as Utah State bumped their advantage to 20 with 13 minutes left.
Utah State put their lead to 29 with a 74-45 advantage with 7 minutes left in the game. The Aggies coasted to the win from that point.
That is now 6️⃣ WWWWWWins in a row!#AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/GK7YoEOV5K
— USU Men’s Hoops (@USUBasketball) February 2, 2019
Up Next
Utah State improved to 17-5 overall, 6-3 in the Mountain West Conference and have won 5 straight and 6 of their last 7.
They will travel to Fresno State on Tuesday to face the Bulldogs at 8:30 p.m. on AT&T SportsNet. The Aggies lost the first meeting to the Bulldogs in Logan on January 9, 78-77 after leading for 39:55 of the game.
Fresno State has a 15-5 record and 6-2 mark in conference play.
