WSU, Utah State basketball: Wesley powers Aggies to victory

LOGAN — Fresh off establishing himself as a team leader on and off the court, Utah State's Tai Wesley had a dominating offensive game and powered the Aggies to a 85-73 win over Weber State.

The win gave the Aggies yet another trophy from the holiday tournament they host and a streak of 29 straight wins in what is now called the Basketball Travelers Invitational.

With forward Nate Bendall out of uniform recovering after heart surgery — a 'minor' procedure called a 'heart ablation to treat an atrial flutter' — the Aggies got a huge game from Wesley.

"We take momentum from this, that's the biggest thing," Welsey said. "We got that Long Beach loss (on Dec. 18) out of our head."

The junior power forward scored 19 points, hauled in eight rebounds and had six assists while playing only 25 minutes.

Wesley wasn't alone in playing big for Utah State in the post. The Aggies had to dig deep into their bench early.

Junior Matt Formisano got his first career start and Morrill gave plenty of minutes to Brady Jardine and Modou Niang.

The usually erratic sophomores, however, had splendid performances as Niang posted career highs in points, rebounds and minutes with 13, 7 and 24, respectively. Jardine added a career best eight points while snagging six rebounds in 15 minutes of action.

"He just took up the slack for us not having Nate Bendall," USU coach Stew Morrill said. "We needed somebody like that."

Niang, typically called off the bench only in blowouts or when everyone else has foul problems, was a factor in the first half as he dropped in both shots he took, grabbed three rebounds and swatted a shot.

He left the court with a few seconds left to a standing ovation from the crowd of 9,427.

"That's not the guy I've seen in practice," said a surprised Morrill. "If I knew he would play like this I would have played him a long time ago ... but he's got to build on that and build his confidence."

As well as Wesley played in most areas, he struggled to defend Weber State's Kyle Bullinger. The Wildcat small forward took advantage of the matchup and repeatedly drove from the wing past Wesley for baskets and mixed in a few deep jumpers as well.

"Defensively, I got scored on every time," Wesley said of his matchup with Bullinger. "I couldn't guard Kyle and he scored on me."