Utah State basketball: Newbold, Aggies too much to handle for Western Oregon

LOGAN — Tyler Newbold is the kind of player coaches love.

The Utah State junior might have a bad game shooting once in a while, but he never stops playing hard.

And after Newbold recorded his first career double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds in Utah State's 78-42 win over Division II Western Oregon on Tuesday night, Aggie coach Stew Morrill couldn't stop praising the player often called the glue to USU's team.

"You — and I told the team this — wish every player would play as hard as Tyler Newbold," Morrill said.

Utah State, as expected, was never seriously threatened in its normally scheduled post-Christmas tuneup game. But the Aggies (10-4) also had a hard time getting themselves focused over the first 15 minutes of the game.

Playing uninspired defense, USU was up by only six points with 6:22 to play in the first half, and the Wolves were feeling confident.

Morrill and the Aggies, however, were finally beginning to wake up.

"It was about what I expected," Morrill said. "We had a hard time getting much of a flow going."

But the Aggies, behind a tremendous shooting night from Jared Quayle and a temperamental exchange from Tai Wesley, got things heated up over the final 25 minutes of the game and simply crushed their visitors.

Quayle led Utah State with 18 points, hitting 5-of-6 shots and all four of his 3-point attempts. His scoring outburst in the first half got the scoreboard moving, and Wesley's attitude did the same to USU's toughness.

Wesley was involved in a rough stretch late in the first half when he had a shot blocked and was then beaten for a basket on the other end of the floor. He got tangled up with WOU's Rico Myles and was called for an intentional foul after pushing Myles away. Myles then charged after Wesley and was called for a technical foul — resulting in both players getting sent to their benches by the coaches for the remainder of the half.

But the fire had been lit for the Aggies, who outscored the visitors 42-14 from that point forward.

"In the first half, we weren't aggressive enough on defense," Newbold said. "In the second half, we picked it up. Coach Morrill let us know that what we were doing wasn't acceptable."

Western Oregon (6-3) finished the game shooting just 34.6 percent and was unable to do much of anything in the second half, making only 5-of-26 shots and scoring only 12 points.