Utah
Utah State notches sloppy home win over Northwest Nazarene
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LOGAN — Utah State beat Division II’s Northwest Nazarene 84-53 at home Saturday evening in a sloppy affair.
“It was way closer than the score,” Aggies head coach Danny Sprinkle said of the game.
The Aggies had their home fans rocking the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum early as they got out to a 19-2 lead in the first five minutes, but their hot start came to a screeching halt as the Nighthawks held Utah State to just 6 points in the ensuing eight minutes and cut the lead to single digits.
“We subbed,” Sprinkle said, calling it the reason for his team’s slump. “Their energy and their intent wasn’t in the right place, and they went on a 14-4 run when we subbed our starters out, and that’s unacceptable.”
At half, Utah State had just 5 points from bench players.
Sprinkle said he was pleased, though, with the energy of his starters at the beginning of both halves and each time they came back into the game. Many of the starters had electric plays that ignited the Aggies’ offense at various points throughout the game.
Utah State was led in scoring by Great Osobor, who finished with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting and 10 rebounds. He added a handful of highlight plays, including an impressive poster dunk early in the game and a 3-pointer in the second half.
The Aggies’ hot start and strong starting lineup proved too much to overcome for Northwest Nazarene. Though they tallied 15 turnovers on the evening, which still paled in comparison to the Nighthawks’ 22 turnovers, Utah State managed to shoot 52% from the field and retained a big lead throughout the evening.
Utah State closed the evening on a positive note, ending the game on a 17-2 run.
“You know, we’ve got to get a lot better,” said Darius Brown II, who led the nation in assist-to-turnovers ratio prior to Saturday night’s game and finished with 11 assists and six steals against the Nighthawks. “We have two good teams coming up next week — Santa Clara’s next — so we have a lot of things we have to work on. … It starts next practice.”
Utah State ended their three-game home stretch by extending their win streak to eight to improve to 9-1 overall in the season.