Utah State basketball: Nevada knocks off WAC champ Aggies

RENO, Nevada — After Utah State celebrated a Western Athletic Conference regular-season championship Thursday, the Aggies' game at Nevada had trouble written all over it.

Not only did the game have no implication in the conference title hunt or tournament seeding for USU, but the Wolf Pack — which had its run of five straight WAC titles snapped — was coming off an ugly loss at last-place Fresno State.

"They were really good tonight," USU coach Stew Morrill said on a postgame radio interview after the Aggies dropped an 84-71 decision Saturday night at the Lawlor Events Center. "That's the reason that team was picked to win our league. Their talent level is really good."

Perhaps playing on an emotional letdown after clinching the WAC title two nights earlier, the Aggies (26-4, 13-2 WAC) fell behind early by turning the ball over and allowing the Wolf Pack to knock down a bundle of 3-pointers.

"We got back and made it interesting," Morrill said, "but they were by far better than us tonight."

Nevada, the preseason pick to win the conference and the host of the WAC Tournament in two weeks, made sure Utah State knew the WAC title still goes through Reno by jumping out to a 26-12 lead just 10 minutes into the game.

The Wolf Pack (17-11, 9-5) kept pouring it on and upped the lead to 39-18 off a steal and fastbreak layup with 5:43 left in the half.

Seven USU turnovers, seven Nevada offensive rebounds vand some hot shooting gave the Wolf Pack a 47-32 lead at the break. Nevada scored 14 points off

those first-half Aggie turnovers.

Nevada's high-scoring youngsters — Luke Babbitt and Armon Johnson — combined for 49 points.

"It's hard to stop a team once they start going," Utah State point guard Jared Quayle said. "If they starting making shots, they're hard to stop."

Johnson's 28 points led all players.

Utah State was led by Gary Wilkinson's 16 points, but the senior WAC player of the year candidate had only one rebound. Tai Wesley scored 10, had 10 rebounds and seven assists, while Jared Quayle added 12 points.

Utah State committed just nine total turnovers, but with seven in the first half proved costly.

"There's no excuse for how we played in the first half. We just came out sluggish," Quayle said. "We played a little better in the second half, but it was too late."