I’ve been to a lot of states for the games I’ve attended thus
far on Mission 351, but I had never seen a college hoops game in the state of Utah
before visiting Arena #162, the Dee Glen
Smith Spectrum in Logan, UT, on the campus of Utah State University. As such, Utah became the 39th
different state (including DC) where I’ve seen a game. Only 11 more to go since Alaska has no
Division 1 programs. On this evening,
the Utah State Aggies were taking on the last place Wyoming Cowboys in a Mountain
West Conference showdown.
The Dee Glen
Smith Spectrum was celebrating its 50th anniversary as the homecourt
for Utah State this season and the building definitely showed its age in some
parts. However, I would say overall the
building was better than I might have expected from a 50 year old venue. Being a basketball only facility, the layout
was perfect in a circular fashion with all seats facing the court where I
imagine there aren’t really any bad seats in the house. Traveling solo to this
game, I was fortunate to snag a single seat in the first row right at the
sideline and baseline intersection so I could really feel like I was in the
action. Now the bad part was that the concourse
for Dee Glen Smith Spectrum is at the top of the seating bowl so if you want to
get concessions or use the restroom during the game, a front row seat means walking
up 40 or so rows to get back to the concourse.
For being the worst team in the conference record-wise, the
Cowboys kept the game close through much of the first half before the Aggies
pulled away in the last few minutes to take a 15-point lead into the
break. Now this is when things really
got interesting as the halftime entertainment ended up being an aerialist who
graduated from Utah State previously. In
all my previous games, I’ve never seen this as a halftime act and it was equal
parts mesmerizing and terrifying as a curtain was dropped from a hole in the
ceiling and this girl climbed the curtain to probably 25-30 feet in the air at
times using just the curtain as support for some pretty incredible stunts and
movements.
After the break, Wyoming once again did a good job of
staying within 10-12 points for a lot of the second half (even cutting the lead
to single digits a few times) before Utah State’s star senior Sam Merrill took
over scoring and facilitating. Merrill
was honored pregame for crossing the 2,000 career point mark in the Aggies’
prior game. The only drama in the final
couple minutes was whether or not Utah State would cover the 21-point spread
for all those gamblers out there. USU
made 2 free throws with less than 20 seconds left to go up 23 points before
Wyoming would come down with under 10 seconds left and bury a 3-point basket for
a final score of 78-58 in favor of the Aggies.
|
Outside the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum in Logan, UT |
|
Seating bowl of the arena before most of the fans arrived |
|
Opening tip between the Aggies and Cowboys |
|
Utah St. star Sam Merrill attacks the basket a layup early in the second half |
No comments:
Post a Comment