USU basketball: Aggies cap fantastic week with title

MOSCOW, Idaho — Utah State operated like a flock of geese flying south for the winter in its 78-58 victory over the Idaho Vandals Saturday night: The Aggies were determined, worked like a team, and never took its eye off the prize.

In a game that meant nothing to Idaho, it meant everything to Utah State, and the Aggies played like it.

After beating Boise State Thursday night, the Aggies needed to beat the Vandals to earn a share of the Western Athletic Conference crown and secure the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament next week in Las Cruces, N.M.

And it was only fitting that senior Jaycee Carroll led them to the crown.

Carroll, the WAC's leading scorer for the second straight year and shoe-in for the player of the year, scored 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting, and Gary Wilkinson added 17 more in leading the Aggies to the 20-point win and a guaranteed postseason berth for the ninth straight year.

"It was a real team effort tonight," said Carroll, who was whistled for his first-ever technical in the second half. " ... We can out really hard really early and we got that 15-, 20-point lead and from then on we had to just play even with them, and that's pretty much what we did."

The regular-season title is Utah State's first since joining the WAC three years ago and its first since tying with Pacific for the Big West Conference crown in 2004-05, the Aggies' final year in that league.

"They can say WAC champs and feel good about it," Utah State coach Stew Morrill said. "They had to go out and earn it on the road."

Utah State, which has won five straight games, now awaits the winner of San Jose State-Louisiana Tech, who play Tuesday, in the WAC Tournament Thursday at 2:30 p.m. The Aggies advanced to the conference finals in their first two years in the league, and lost to Nevada and New Mexico State, respectively.

Utah State finished the week 3-0 with wins over Fresno State, Boise State and Idaho.

The Aggies, who have won 23 games for a school-record nine straight years, were determined from the get-go Saturday. They scored on their first six possessions (hitting six of their first eight shots) and the Vandals (8-20, 5-11) never had a chance.