Aggies' massive second half downs Wildcats


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LOGAN — In-state rivalries are one of the fun parts of college sports, but falling to them is pure agony for the losing fan base.

Fans inside the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum knew this, as Weber State and Utah State opened their respective seasons with a non-conference rivalry game.

Utah State and Weber State have had a longstanding rivalry, and the rivalry added another dimension when Wildcats coach Randy Rahe, who was a longtime assistant coach under Aggies coach Stew Morrill, took over the Weber program.

Friday, the master beat the apprentice, as the Aggies outscored the Wildcats 43-14 to beat Weber State 72-61.

The Wildcats opened the game on a 5-0 run and shot 57 percent from the floor in the first half. Weber led 47-29 at the end of the first half but didn’t score for the first four minutes of the second half.

Sophomore wing Richaud Gittens said Weber didn’t play aggressive enough in the second half to win.


"It was a tale of two halves," said Weber State coach Randy Rahe.

“We just didn’t out-aggressive enough, plain and simple,” said Gittens, who scored 13 points. “We were the aggressors in the first half, and the second half, we just didn’t have it. Came out like the game was over, and it clearly wasn’t.”

Rahe said the game was a tale of two halves.

“It wasn’t about shots; it was about our defense,” said Rahe, whose Wildcats gave up 55 percent shooting in the second half. “We feed off our defense, and it’s obviously a tale of two halves. They did to us in the second half what we did to them in the first half, and we’ve got a young basketball team and we’ve got to learn a valuable lesson.”

Utah State opened the second half on a 28-6 run, with David Collette giving the Aggies their first lead of the game, 55-53, with 9:56 left.

Weber guard Jeremy Senglin said the second-half struggles could be attributed to Utah State’s defense and the Wildcats not executing on offense.

“They extended the zone a little bit and cheating passing lanes, so that kind of affected us a little bit,” said Senglin, who scored 14 points in the game. “I think it was we didn’t come out as aggressive in the second half as we did in the first. We’ve got to play 40 minutes; we can’t just play half a game.”

The Wildcats, who shot 58 percent in the first half and made five 3-pointers, made only four field goals in the second half, shooting just 17.4 percent.

Rahe said Weber’s offense lost its aggressiveness as the Aggies warmed up offensively.

“First half, we saw the zone and we actually executed (well),” he said. “We really ran good zone offense, and we were the aggressor. Then in the second half, they became the aggressor and we just didn’t respond to it very well. We got back on our heels, and it’s human nature, a little bit.”

Utah State outscored Weber 38-20 in the paint after the Wildcats held a 16-14 advantage in the first half. The Aggies also scored 16 points off turnovers, and Weber committed 20 turnovers in the game.

In preparation for a home game against Presentation College Monday, Gittens said the team has to improve in several areas.

“We’re going to go back and watch film, and we’re going to get better from this,” he said. “It’s a learning curve for us, and I guarantee this won’t happen again. We’ll learn from this, and we’ll get better from this.”

With the win over Weber, Morrill moves to 20-9 all-time against Weber State, including a 13-5 record while coaching Utah State. He was 7-3 against the Wildcats when coaching at Montana.

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Jon Oglesby

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