 chipped away by making its first five 3-pointers of the second half. Alphonso Anderson's 3 cut it to 71-67.Anderson missed a 3-pointer with 13 seconds left, and LSU grabbed the defensive rebound, but Skylar Mays had it poked away and the Aggies passed it around to run out the clock. LSU had 11 second-half turnovers.Merrill and Anderson each scored 24 points. Merrill, the Mountain West player of the year last season, was 5 of 9 from 3-point range, made 9 of 10 free throws and had eight assists. Justin Bean had 14 points and 12 rebounds, and Diogo Brito scored 12 points.Mays scored a career-high 30 points for LSU (3-2). He was 10-of-13 shooting with five 3-pointers. Darius Days and Emmitt Williams each scored 14 points.LSU shot 47% from the field, snapping Utah State's run of holding its last four opponents to less than 40%.LSU made six 3-pionters in the first 8 minutes, using a 14-2 run to build an early 28-13 lead. The Tigers finished the half 9 of 18 from distance and shot 52% overall. Days led the way for LSU with 14 points to help build a 44-30 lead.Utah State's starters were held to 14 points in the first half, but Anderson kept them within reach with nine points off the bench, including a tip-in at the buzzer.BIG PICTUREUtah State: The Aggies improved to 62-18 as an -ranked team after extending their run to six straight games with 80-plus points. USU's ranking is the highest for the program since the 1970-71 season when it was as high as No. 9.LSU: The Tigers barely missed out again on an opportunity to pad their resume with a nonconference win against a ranked opponent. They lost 84-82 at then-No. 23 VCU on Nov. 13. Just like against the Aggies, LSU had an opportunity to tie or go ahead in the final seconds, but Mays turned it over to the Rams with one second left.UP NEXTUtah State will play North Texas on Sunday.LSU will play Rhode Island on Sunday.---More college basketball: https://apnews.com/Collegebasketball and http://twitter.com/-Top25)
Nov 21, 2019No. 15 Utah State has scored at least 80 points in each of its first five games for the first time since the 1986-87 season.Four different players have taken turns as the Aggies' leading scorer during that stretch.Utah State (5-0) will try to continue that balanced effort when it meets LSU (3-1) in the Jersey Mike's Jamaica Classic on Friday night in Montego Bay."I think it's great to have depth," Aggies head coach Craig Smith said. "It's hard for the other team to key on specific guys ... when we have all the different guys that can do so many different things. It certainly opens up the floor, makes it much more difficult for a scouting report." The opponent's scouting report is naturally going to feature senior guard Sam Merrill, the Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year.He's the only Utah State player to lead the team in scoring more than once, including 28 points in a season-opening victory against Montana State.Then sophomore forward Justin Bean led the way against Weber State with 18, sophomore guard Brock Miller scored 27 against Denver and junior forward Alphonso Anderson had 21 against North Carolina A&T.Merrill had a team-high 21 in an 82-50 victory against UTSA on Monday night."We just care what it says by our logo at the end of the game," Bean said. "It's all team-ball." The Aggies have held each of their last four opponents to less than 40 percent shooting."We thought coming into the year, we'd have a lot of versatility with this team," Smith said. "I think it's showing." LSU was ranked just five spots behind Utah State in the preseason poll, coming in at No. 22, but the Tigers lost at VCU, 84-82, in their second game of the season to fall out of the rankings.They had 26 turnovers in that game and committed 24 more even as they bounced back to beat Nicholls State 75-65 in their next game.But the Tigers showed improvement in a 77-50 victory against UMBC on Tuesday, turning the ball over 14 times."We handled the ball a little bit better," LSU coach Will Wade said. "We had six turnovers in the first half, and one of them was when we had two guys fighting for a rebound, which I can live with. In the second half, we had some inexperienced guys in there, and we didn't do some things we needed to do." The Tigers fell behind 9-1, but Charles Manning Jr. led a strong effort by the bench as LSU outscored UMBC 34-10 the rest of the half, making its last 10 field-goal attempts before the break.Manning finished with a team-high 16 points."He is such a cerebral player," Wade said of Manning. "He is able to see things when he is out there. It is almost like because he can see things and he knows what is going on once he gets in there, he can just pounce. He knows exactly what the weaknesses are, he knows exactly where to drive and he knows exactly what needs to happen defensively." On Sunday, Utah State will face North Texas, and LSU will face Rhode Island.--Field Level Media
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