Utah State basketball: Aggies try to keep it rolling on western trip

Utah State is on the verge of breaking into the Top 25 polls. The Aggies are 17-1 overall and the only unbeaten team in Western Athletic Conference play.

USU has won 12 consecutive games and features the nation's most efficient offense with an NCAA-best 51.6 shooting percentage.

None of that will matter if the Aggies do what they did the last time they took a road swing through San Jose and Hawaii.

"We remember this trip from last year," Aggie coach Stew Morrill said. "Both were tight, very close games. But we lost both of them."

The road swing eventually cost Utah State an outright WAC regular-season title. And the loss to the Spartans was the last time the Aggies have tasted defeat in a conference regular-season game.

Tonight, with an 8 p.m. tipoff, the Aggies have a chance to avenge that loss but know the Spartans will be primed to host USU.

"We're the team with the target on our back," Aggie forward Tai Wesley said. "We know everyone is going to be gunning for us."

For Wesley, the game also represents a chance for personal redemption. A year ago, as a freshman, the 6-foot-7 forward was ejected less then 90 seconds into the game after a flagrant foul.

This time, Wesley hopes to stay on the court and have a performance similar to the one he had last week against Boise State, in which he scored 26 points, grabbed

eight rebounds, had four assists and collected five steals in a dominating win.

But with the game on the road, Morrill knows he won't have nearly 10,000 fans supporting his team.

"When we have been fortunate enough to win, it has been close," Morrill said of USU's success at San Jose. "I expect a good game at San Jose. I know we are going to have to go down and play a possession game and play well in order to win."

Winning on the road, however, has not been too much of a challenge for the Aggies. USU has yet to lose a road game this season — its 6-0 mark is the best in the country — but Morrill isn't confident that will last forever.

"We are really going to have to watch ourselves in terms of our energy level in practice and length of practice. We will have to do some things to sustain our amount of focus," he said.

"Mental energy is just as important as physical when you play at this level. It is not an easy thing day after day to do things right, but we will figure it out."