Utah State basketball: Aggies' hot shooting buries the Bengals

Idaho State at Utah State boxscore

LOGAN — Utah State's offense continued its renaissance on Tuesday night as the Aggies got a 71-48 victory over the visiting Idaho State Bengals on the first night of the World Vision Basketball Invitational.

In total, it was perhaps the Aggies' best offensive night of the season. The team shot 53 percent for the game, finding wide-open shots at every opportunity while racking up 20 assists on the night.

"We shot as good a percentage as you could hope for," USU head coach Stew Morrill said. "We were over 50 percent, and we were over 50 percent from 3(-point range). I'll take that every game. We're going to have games when we won't shoot it as well, and that's when your defense has got to carry you."

The Aggies' defense was strong as usual, forcing 16 turnovers and holding the Bengals to just 33 percent shooting in the first half. The 48 points allowed was the least given up by Utah State all season.

It was the offense that made the difference, as the shots finally started falling for Morrill's crew. The Aggies steadily built up a 16-point lead by halftime behind the strength of Brian Green. The senior from Kaysville had 14 points, including 4-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc, in the first half on his way to a 17-point night to lead all scorers.

"The team was really unselfish tonight," Green said after the game. "We were all looking for each other and I was hitting open shots, so that was good."

"(Green) had been shaking his head a little bit because he expects to make shots," Morrill said of Green breaking out of a mini-slump. "He is a pure shooter. If you saw him every day in practice, you would know that is what he can really do. That should help him get his confidence back a little bit."

Green's hot shooting meant good things for Utah State's bench production.

In all, the Aggies' bench outscored the starters, scoring 40 of the Utah State's 71 points.

"I thought our bench production was good," Morrill said. "It's nice to have guys like Brady (Jardine) and Brian (Green) coming off the bench and giving us energy and production. Both those guys had good games."

Off the bench, Jardine chipped in nine points to go along with 10 rebounds. Freshman guard James Walker III hit both of his shots, scoring five points and dishing three assists while comfortably running the offense.