Utah State basketball: League-leading Aggies take on struggling Bulldogs

By Jared Eborn, Deseret News

Published: Saturday, Jan. 31 2009 12:30 a.m. MST

Summary

As the halfway point of the Western Athletic Conference season arrived, Utah State found itself where few expected the Aggies to be — alone in first place with a two-game cushion over the rest of the field.

FRESNO, Calif. — As the halfway point of the Western Athletic Conference season arrived, Utah State found itself where few expected the Aggies to be — alone in first place with a two-game cushion over the rest of the field.

It was Nevada, after all, that was the clear-cut favorite to win the conference when the preseason polls came out and the Aggies were trying to figure out how to score without WAC player of the year Jaycee Carroll.

"No, I sure didn't," Aggie coach Stew Morrill said when asked if, before the season started, he envisioned his team holding a 20-1 record and being unbeaten in the WAC. "But we'll take it."

The Aggies open the second half of the WAC season tonight with a trip to Fresno State and a matchup with the struggling Bulldogs.

Ex-BYU coach Steve Cleveland's team is trying to find its way and had lost seven of nine games before beating Houston Baptist Wednesday night. With a 9-12 overall record, Fresno State stands at the bottom of the WAC standings and has only one win in six conference games.

Knowing they have a sizable cushion heading down the stretch is nice, but the Aggies know they can't afford to get complacent.

"It gives us a big advantage," said USU forward Tai Wesley, who totaled 22 points and six rebounds in the win over Nevada Thursday. "We're halfway through WAC play and we're undefeated. We're looking to win all our games from here on out."

Winning on the road, conventional wisdom says, is always a challenge. Yet the Aggies have the nation's longest road win streak at eight games overall and 10 regular-season games.

USU hopes that road streak stays intact against a team that gave them all they could ask for and then some when the two teams met in Logan a couple of weeks ago. The Aggies held on for a 65-61 win on Jan. 15 as Fresno's Sylvester Seay had a career game with 32 points and nine rebounds to nearly knock off the Aggies.

Though their record might indicate otherwise, Fresno State has been playing fairly well, but not quite well enough to put wins on the board. The Bulldogs are outscoring opponents by 0.4 points per game and are being outrebounded by a narrow 0.2 boards per game.

Seay, a 6-foot-9 senior, has taken over the scoring lead for the team in conference games, where he averages 16.5 points and 8.5 rebounds. Paul George chips in 15.5 and 6.3 from the wing.

A win by Utah State would likely propel the Aggies, currently No. 27 in the coaches poll, into the Top 25 for the first time since the 2003-04 season.

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