Those, and other, fouls sent Marquette (25-9) to the free throw line 23 times in the game where they made 19. The Aggies, on the other hand, shot just eight free throws.

"Just too many fouls," Morrill said. "Too many fouls and they kept scoring from the line. That was the frustrating part."

The Aggies were 'stunned' by the quickness and athleticism of the Golden Eagles, the coaches and players said, and appeared to take far too many quick shots to open the game.

That allowed Marquette to build a nice lead in the opening 15 minutes before USU finally snapped out of it and climbed back into the game.

But aside from the trio of Quayle, Wesley and Gary Wilkinson, Utah State got just nine points from the rest of the team and three of those came on a last-second 3-pointer by Jaxon Myaer that simply made it a one point loss instead of four.

Still, the Aggies had a chance to force the game into overtime.

Pooh Williams banked in a 3-point with 23 seconds left to make it a 56-54 game and the Aggies fouled MU's Jerel McNeal (14 points). He missed his second free throw and Wilkinson rebounded.

Instead of calling a timeout, Utah State moved the ball downcourt and ended up with Wilkinson taking a 3-pointer from the left wing with six seconds to play that would have tied the game.

"I'm not a big believer in letting them set their defense," Morrill said. "We tried to fly the ball up court and got a decent look and it didn't go down."

The Aggies played a great second half, shooting 51.9 percent and limiting Marquette to just 38.1 percent shooting. But the rough start that saw small forward Lazar Hayward (26 points, eight rebounds) score 10 quick points and put USU down by double digits early.

In the end, Utah State's 30-percent shooting effort in the first half created too deep a hole to climb from.

"We just needed a couple of baskets," Morrill said.

"Gosh, we had some great shots that just didn't go down."

E-MAIL: jeborn@desnews.com