Utah State basketball: Aggies start fast, roll past Fresno State

RENO, Nev. — If there's one thing Utah State coaches and players have pinpointed as a recurring problem in post-game reviews throughout the season, it has been sluggish starts.

On Thursday afternoon in the Biggest Little City in the World, the Aggies had no such complaints.

In fact, after USU's blazing hot start against Fresno State there really wasn't much — except, perhaps, some early foul trouble — to find wrong.

"We got a great start," Utah State coach Stew Morrill said after the Aggies' 85-68 quarterfinal win over the Bulldogs in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament at the Lawlor Events Center. "That cushion we got was really important."

Indeed it was.

The Aggies were aggressive from the opening tip. The first play of the game went to league MVP Gary Wilkinson and he immediately drew a foul from FSU's Sylvester Seay and made both free throws.

After that, it was never really much of a close game.

Utah State (28-4 and looking better in regards to a possible at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament) got a stop and then found Pooh Williams for a 3-point and before Fresno State knew what hit them, the Aggies held a 16-2 lead less than four minutes into the game.

"We were just aggressive," Morrill said. "We want to play free and easy. We didn't want to play worried — and we didn't."

Fresno State, according to coach Steve Cleveland, came into the game hoping to limit the damage done by Wilkinson and Tai Wesley. That worked out just fine with the powerful duo accounting for just 20 points, but the Bulldogs didn't anticipate a torrid shooting performance from the outside by USU.

The Aggies unloaded from long range, hitting 13-of-21 3-pointers and never allowed Fresno State to get closer than nine points.

Stavon Williams — USU's sixth man — lit things up from outside and made Fresno State pay for its focus on clogging the paint. Williams scored a game-high 22 points, hitting 8-of-11 shots and knocking down six 3-pointers.

"When I hit my first shot, my confidence is pretty high," he said.

And Thursday he was simply unafraid of pulling the trigger when given the opportunity to do so.

"Once the ball hit his hands," Cleveland said, "it was going up and it was going in. That guy always seemed to put the dagger in our runs."