Utah
State coach
Stew
Morrill doesn't have to worry anymore if his Aggies' 30-4 record is good
enough to get them into the NCAA tournament. The Aggies made sure they'd be in
the field of 65 with a 72-62 win over Nevada in the Western Athletic Conference
championship on Saturday night.
Gary
Wilkinson (6'9''-F-82) scored 21 points and
Jared
Quayle (6'1''-G-85) and
Tai
Wesley (6'7''-F) each had double-doubles. Quayle had 15 points and 10
rebounds, and Wesley 14 points and 11 rebounds for the top-seeded Aggies, who
held Nevada scoreless for the first 6 1/2 minutes and denied Wolf Pack scoring
leader
Luke
Babbitt (6'9''-F-89) a field goal until 16:24 was left in the game.
The tournament title gave the WAC's regular season champs their sixth trip to
the NCAA tournament in 10 years, but first since 2006. 'The one thing I told our
guys coming into this tournament is that we had to treat this like the only way
we were going to the NCAAs is if we won this,' Morrill said. 'Before we came
here I kept hearing, 'We're in, we're in.' Then I heard we had to win one and
we're in. Then I heard that we had to win in the semifinals to get in. Well, all
I know is, we're in now.' Armon
Johnson (6'3''-G-89) scored 17 of his 20 points in the second half while
Babbitt, a freshman, finished with only eight points on 3-of-12 shooting for
second-seeded Nevada (21-12), which made only two of its first 21 attempts from
the field and shot 30 percent. Nevada coach
Mark Fox
said Babbitt had an injured back.
'We got outplayed. It wasn't our night,' said Fox, whose team watched five of
its first six shots roll around the rim before falling off. 'We had a lot of
little, easy looks at the basket that we did not finish. At one point it was
10-0 and it should have been 10-10. We just didn't finish,' he said. 'Fatigue,
certainly, was probably a part of that. Being young physically was probably more
of a factor. We just couldn't physically answer the bell very well with a third
game in three days and a second one in under 24 hours.' Trailing 28-23 at the
half, the closest Nevada came in the second half was when Johnson's two-handed
dunk made it 29-25 with 18:38 remaining.
Williams, who finished with 12 points, and
Tyler
Newbold (6'4''-G/F-86) hit consecutive 3-pointers and Wilkinson scored on a
hook on an 8-0 run to push the lead to 38-27.
Joey
Shaw (6'6''-F-87) made a 15-footer but Wilkinson answered with a jump hook
and a 19-footer to spark another 12-0 run that put the Aggies ahead 49-32 with
9:40 left. Johnson converted a 3-point play but Quayle nailed a 3-point goal and
Wesley tipped in a rebound for a 54-35 lead.
Lyndale Burleson (6'3''-G-85),
Malik
Cooke (6'6''-F-89) and Babbitt made consecutive 3-pointers to pull within
54-44. But Utah State ran off another six straight points to go up 61-44 on
Wilkinson's basket inside with 2:47 left. Cooke made a 3-pointer, then Johnson
made two 3s around a three-point play to cut it to 66-56 with 1:18 on the clock.
But Wilkinson made two free throws and Williams slammed home Newbold's alley-oop
pass to make it 70-59.
The two teams split two games during the regular season with Nevada beat Utah
State 84-71 in Reno on Feb. 28. 'To win on their home court is unbelievable,'
Morrill said. 'We've been in the WAC four years and we've been to three
championship games and all three have been on the other team's home court. I
just think this was finally our time.' Utah State raced to a 13-0 lead as Nevada
missed its first 10 shots before
Ahyaro Phillips (6'8''-F) tip-in with 13:30 left in the first half. Shaw
scored to cut the lead to 15-4 but Quayle, Wesley and Wilkinson made three more
baskets to put the Aggies up 21-4 midway through the half. The Wolf Pack's dry
spell continued until Johnson converted a 3-point play to spark an 11-0 run
capped by Phillips' tip in to pull within 21-15. Utah State had its own 5-minute
scoring drought until Newbold's basket 4:13 before the half. But Shaw matched it
then turned a steal into a 3-point play when he was fouled on a layup to cut the
Aggies' lead to 25-21. Utah State's
Stavon Williams (6'3''-G) added a 3-point goal at 1:10 but Nevada's Dario
Hunt made two free throws just before the half to make it 28-23. Cooke finished
with 10 points, eight rebounds and six steals while Shaw had 10 points.
Courtesy of utah state aggies
Tournament Final: Utah State - Nevada 72-62 Tournament Semifinals: Utah State - New Mexico State 71-70
Nevada - Louisiana Tech 77-68
Morrill
Utah
State coach
