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Aggies on the air: Ags begin a lengthy road test

Published: Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008 12:04 a.m. MST

By Jay Hinton, Deseret News

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FRESNO, Calif. — Being 13-0 at home, including 5-0 in Western Athletic Conference play, the Utah State Aggies have proven they can take care of business at home.

The Aggies now must prove they can win on the road as well, beginning tonight at 8 p.m. at Fresno State.

"You're bucking the odds when you go to several of these places trying to get wins," Utah State coach Stew Morrill said, referring to sites like New Mexico State, Nevada, Hawaii, Boise State and Fresno State.

"We've got to find some (wins) if we're going to be a legitimate contender in the league. We've got to find a way to win some games and win some tough games on the road."

So far, the Aggies are 1-1 on the road in league play, beating Louisiana Tech and falling hard at New Mexico State, 100-70.

"I think our guys are anxious to show they can play better on the road than we did at New Mexico State," he said.

In all, the Aggies will play four of their next five on the road beginning tonight. After a home game with San Jose on Saturday, the Aggies will travel to Nevada on Monday, Hawaii on Feb. 16 and San Jose State on Feb. 18.

"This is a tough stretch for us with four of the next five on the road and five games in 12 days," Morrill said. "I don't remember a scenario like this ever. It's not very often you end up with that many road games."

The contest with Nevada is a make-up game because on the initial date, Jan. 5, bad weather wouldn't allow the Aggies to get to Reno.

First and foremost, however, the Aggies need to take care of business at Fresno State — a place they haven't won since joining the WAC. In fact, the Aggies have lost three of the past four games against the Bulldogs.

In Fresno, the Aggies lost in double-overtime in 2006, and then lost 79-70 (and the game wasn't that close) last year at Save Mart. The Bulldogs also beat the Aggies last year in Logan.

"Last year they bombed pretty good there and we couldn't get them slowed down," Morrill said. "That's a concern there because they are so good on the break."

The Aggies' success will all start on how they can contain Fresno point guard Kevin Bell and shooting guard Eddie Miller, but the Bulldogs (11-12, 4-5) have five players scoring in double figures.

Bell is averaging 17.9 points and 6.1 assists per game, while Miller, who has fired up 197 three-point shots, is averaging 14.8 points. Dwight O'Neil, who just got back into the lineup after breaking his wrist, is averaging 11.4 points, while Bryan Harvey and Hector Hernandez are averaging 10.6 and 10.1 points, respectively.

Utah State leads the all-time series 21-19, but it is just 4-13 in games played in --> at Fresno.

The Aggies enter the game following a 77-63 victory over Nevada in which Jaycee Carroll, the WAC's leading scorer at 21.1 points a game, scored 24 and Gary Wilkinson added 23 points and 10 rebounds.

Aggies on the air