Feb. 15, 2017
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery
LOGAN, Utah -
San Diego State Head Coach Steve Fisher:
"At halftime we talked about the fact that they (Utah State) were shooting 50 percent from the field at a stretch where they made 8-of-13. The reason we led at halftime was because we forced nine turnovers and had 10 more shots than they did. I also told them that if I were in their locker room I would be saying that they won't be able to keep it up. 'They will die on the vine, their endurance and stamina will give in and we've got to keep fighting.' That's what I told them that they were saying in the Utah State locker room. Don't let that play out. Fight like crazy. I thought we played a lot better half-court defense in the second half than we did in the first half. We made them take harder shots and we made them miss more shots. If we would've secured the rebounds right down at the end, we wouldn't have had to hold our breath in the last two or three possessions."
Utah State head coach Tim Duryea
"It was a huge game for us in terms of the swing of where we are trying to put ourselves. Tough loss. In the second half we were as poor offensively as you can be in a half. In stretches we got enough stops to get out in the open floor. That's something we talked about before the game, it's not a team you want to grind it out in the halfcourt against. We want to get stops, we want to get breaks on the open court. We got that a few times but our decision making and shot selection when we got in the open court, to make some plays, was very poor. Offensively for a half, maybe our poorest half of the year. From 3, from 2, in the halfcourt and on the break, really we did nothing well offensively in the second half. We had some defensive stretches that allowed us to take the lead and try to take hold of the game. We hold them to 37 percent in the second half, that's not bad but (Trey) Kell and (Jeremy) Hemsley make a couple of very tough shots at the end of the clock and with some turnovers on our end, that turned out to be the difference in the game."
On the guard matchup...
"I thought their guards played with a lot of poise and mental toughness. On the road they continued to run their team and did a really good job. Our guys got sped up a little bit. They made some uncharacteristic poor plays. They missed some good looks, a few times took some bad shots. Overall that's a tough duo to play against and they played well tonight."
Utah State senior wing Jalen Moore
"It's a tough loss. We played tough, they went on a little run in the second half and we weren't able to come back from it. They hit a couple tough 3's, that was huge for them. They hit some big shots, we didn't. We came down on offense and had a little stagnant offense, things weren't going well for us. On the other end, they were converting. We were shooting hard shots and we weren't making them. We've got four games left, three of them on the road and we haven't won on the road yet. That needs to change."
On the slow start...
"They always play that pressure defense. I've been here for four years, I've played against them many times, here, their place, the tournament. You've got to get used to it. We have a lot of young guys. They'll get the hang of it the longer they stay here. They try to make you use up time, then by the time you get into your possession you don't have much time to get a good shot. They did that pretty well at first, then we got the hang of it and we were able to score."
Utah State Guard Sam Merrill:
"Defensively, we did pretty good for the most part. We had a couple stretches that weren't very good on defense, but offensively it was just not our night. Credit San Diego State. Everyone knows that they're a pressure basketball team and we didn't handle it well in San Diego, but we expected to do a better job tonight. Obviously, we didn't. Thank goodness for Jalen in the first half. He really kept us in it. We knew we had a chance because we defended pretty well in the first half. Even though our offense was so bad, we were only down three at halftime, but we could never really get on a run or an extended rhythm."