Utah State basketball: Aggies beat Nevada to assure a Big Dance

RENO, Nev. — Remember all those questions about 'if' Utah State would get into the NCAA Tournament? Well, scratch them all.

Behind a ferocious defense that shut the vaunted Nevada offense down for most of the game, Utah State cruised to an easy win over the host Wolf Pack to win the Western Athletic Conference title with a 72-62 victory Saturday night.

The win gives the Aggies a 30-4 record and all sorts of momentum as they wait to learn not the if, but the where, who and when of their NCAA Tournament appearance.

"We're going to enjoy Selection Sunday," Aggie coach Stew Morrill said, "and not have to fret."

While Utah State's at-large worthiness has been debated for the better part of two months by so-called experts across the country, Morrill said he chose to approach this year's WAC tourney the way he did the Big West tournaments — and not leave anything up to a selection committee holed up in an Indianapolis conference room.

"You know what, we're in," Morrill said, "and it's a wonderful feeling."

It's also getting to be a familiar feeling for the Aggies who have been in the Big Dance six of the past 10 seasons and have been invited to the NIT the other four years.

Saturday night in the Lawlor Events Center, Utah State never trailed and aside from a brief rally at the end of the first half, was never truly threatened by the Wolf Pack.

"We got outplayed," Nevada coach Mark Fox stated matter-of-factly after the game.

And at no point was that more evident than the first 10 minutes of the game.

Utah State stormed out to a 13-0 lead as Nevada couldn't buy a bucket on its home court. The Wolf Pack missed their first 10 shots before finally getting onto the scoreboard with 13:32 left in the half on an offensive rebound tip by Ahyaro Phillips.

"They missed some shots and things went our way," Morrill said. "That's what it takes to win in a game like this."

The Aggies' lead grew to as large as 17 at 21-4 10 minutes into the game as Nevada's shooting woes continued. The Pack were just 2-of-22 at the time.

But, as was the case in many games in the WAC tourney, no lead — no matter how large — was safe.

USU's shooting cooled off, Nevada's picked up and before long the score was 28-23 at the half.

"We talked about that at half time," USU senior Gary Wilkinson said. "Our offense is always going to be there ... tonight, every time we came back out (from the huddle) every one of us was focused on stopping them."

It worked incredibly well.

With both teams playing their third game in as many nights, fatigue settled in. Nevada, however, was the team blaming the schedule for its woes.