Utah State basketball: Kansas State holds off Aggies

TUCSON, Ariz. — There are 346 Division I college basketball teams in this country, and for all but one, the season ends earlier than expected and with an unhappy result.

The Utah State Aggies joined the ranks of teams that ended their season in a loss with their 73-68 defeat at the hands of Kansas State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Tucson.

With the loss, the most successful senior class in Utah State history will end their careers without an NCAA Tournament victory, something they all desperately wanted.

"It's always tough when it ends, especially tough for six seniors that had marvelous careers at Utah State," USU head coach Stew Morrill said. "I congratulated them on the great job they did this season, and the great job they did throughout their careers."

It was a day filled with upsets and buzzer beaters across the country. In Tucson, Juan Fernandez of Temple hit a leaner with 0.4 seconds left to lead his Owls to a dramatic victory over Penn State — but the same fate did not await the Aggies.

Utah State was frustrated by the pressure from the Wildcats, making it a constant struggle to get into their offense and forcing them to cough up the ball 12 times, many of which were unforced errors as the Aggies threw the ball away in the first half.

"They are a big, strong, and physical team, and we knew we had our hands full coming in," Utah State's Tai Wesley said. "We wanted to match their physicality and play harder than them."

Wesley finished with 18 points and six rebounds in the final game of his career, with 16 of those points coming in the second half as the Aggies tried to rally from an 11-point halftime deficit. Fellow senior Pooh Williams chipped in 16 points of his own in an attempt to keep the Aggies alive.

"It is tough any time you get down against a good team," Williams said. "It's going to be tough to get back in it and try and win the game."

The Wildcats' Jacob Pullen scored 22 points to go along with five assists. Pullen was a question mark coming into the game after missing practice and interviews on Wednesday with a reported case of food poisoning. Along with teammate Curtis Kelly, Pullen and the Wildcats had an answer for every Aggie run.

With 5:03 left, the Aggies trailed by 13 and looked like they were down for the count, but Utah State responded with a seven-point run punctuated by a thundering Pooh Williams dunk. Kansas State answered with a six-point run to push the lead back to 10 points.

After a parade of fouls and free throws, the Aggies came as close as five points in the final minute, but simply ran out of time.

"We have been in a lot of games where we were down 10 at halftime or 15 at halftime," Williams said. "There is never a point in the game where we think we are going to lose. Even with 30 seconds left on the clock and we were down seven or eight points, we still thought we were going to win."

Even in the loss, Morrill kept his eye on the big picture, pointing out that the Aggies had plenty to be proud of in their time at Utah State.