LOGAN — As exhibition games go, Utah State got what it wanted from Saturday night's matchup against Trinity Western.

The Aggies, most importantly, won.

But USU's 65-40 win gave Stew Morrill a chance to give his bench, especially the youngsters on it, a chance to play significant minutes.

"I'm just trying to get guys minutes," Morrill said.

Utah State played 11 players, and all saw at least 10 minutes on the floor. No one played more than Tyler Newbold's 28.

The frequent substitutions sometimes left the Aggies with puzzling lineups, but after building a 30-point lead at halftime, Morrill's goal was to let his players learn on the fly.

"You want guys to play smarter," he said. "They've got to get experience to get smarter."

It helped that Utah State was paced by some of the headier players around.

Jared Quayle paced the Aggies with 19 points, hitting five 3-pointers, while Tai Wesley added 17.

USU limited the Spartans, a tired squad playing its third game against Utah colleges in less than a week, to just 27.6 percent shooting and dominated the first half so thoroughly it was hard to match the offensive and defensive execution in the second 20 minutes.

Which, of course, will give Morrill plenty of material to coach his team with as the regular-season opener arrives next Friday at Weber State.

"We still need to improve," Quayle, the team's only senior, said. "In practice we take a step forward and then we will take a step back."

Saturday night's steps back included an eyebrow-raising 27.3 percent shooting performance in the second half after a 62.5 percent clip in the opening 20 minutes.

Trinity Western surprised the Aggies with a 1-3-1 zone press that caused a few turnovers and made the Aggies rush some shots.

But even with true freshmen Tyrone White (12 minutes, 4 points, 4 rebounds) and Preston Medlin (19 minutes, 2 points, 6 rebounds) seeing plenty of time on the hardwood, Utah State was never in any danger. The Spartans put up a fight in the second half, but the 30-point lead at the break was simply too much to overcome.

It might have been too much for the Aggies, too.

"Well, it was two different halves, for sure," Morrill said. "We really jumped on them early."

But the sloppy play in the second half is something the Ags will certainly want to clean up before they face Weber State.

Still, the convincing win over a team that had beaten Utah Valley and given BYU a pretty stiff challenge for a big chunk of the game gave the Aggies something to enjoy.

"Tonight, we played hard defensively," Quayle said. "I wouldn't say it was great, but we played hard."

And effort, even if the results got a little sloppy toward the end, is what Morrill wanted to see.

"We've got a lot of guys time, and we saw some areas that we need to work on," Morrill said. "It is an exhibition game we can learn from."

e-mail: jeborn@desnews.com