Aggies edge Oral Roberts by 1

LOGAN — The first thing that ran through David Pak's mind when he stepped to the foul line for two shots with his team trailing by a point to Oral Roberts Tuesday night, were his two-less-than favorable free throws in a one-point loss to Pacific 10 months ago.

"I didn't want to let the team down and everyone down again and I felt comfortable going up there," said Pak, who drained the two foul pitches as Utah State held on for the 65-64 victory over the Eagles.

Oral Roberts was leading by a point when Larry Owens inexplicably fouled Pak way above the top of the key with time running out. Although the foul wasn't planned, in hindsight it wasn't a bad move, seeing Pak, who shot just 54.8 percent from the line, hadn't shot a free throw all year. Since those two misses in the meltdown-loss to Pacific, Pak had shot just 5 of 9 foul shots in game action.

Pak, who sat for several minutes after being poked in the eye, was ready, however.

"I've been shooting free throws all year and practicing to get ready, especially from last year," he said. "I've been ready and they came at a pretty important time. Fortunately, I was able to knock them down."

Pak's foul shots were the only points he scored in the second half after scoring 14 in the first half.

"It was a tough call for the official to make," Oral Roberts coach Scott Sutton said. "We should have been more careful and not tried to steal the ball 40 feet from the basket. When you are on the road you have to be more careful down the stretch because you won't always get the calls you would at home."

Pak scored 11 straight points with the help of three straight three-pointers as the Aggies built a 15-5 lead with 14:35 left in the first half.

The Aggies (5-3) held the Eagles (5-5) to just 22.9 percent shooting in the first half and led by as many as 18 points before leading 36-20 at the half.

The Aggies didn't score a field goal for nearly six minutes to start the second half before Nate Harris, who had 13 points and seven rebounds in the game, hit a lay-up with 14:34 left to maintain a 10-point advantage.

Utah State's Jaycee Carroll was held to just two points in the first half, but finally came alive in the second half and scored 15 points, a majority of which came at critical times.