by Amos Naismith
January 31, 2006 (c) TrueAggies.com
Exclusive to TrueAggies.com
LOGAN, Utah – In front of a large and boisterous Spectrum crowd, the Utah
State men’s basketball team, led by Nate Harris’ 19 points, was able to give
Stew Morrill his 400 th career win as a college coach with a 63-52 win over
Hawaii late Monday night.
Harris also muscled out Hawaii’s big men to pull down 11 rebounds. The
Warriors concentrated much of their defensive effort on Jaycee Carroll although
the second year Aggie was still able to score 13 on the night.
Senior Chris Huber added some much needed support off the bench for USU
shooting a perfect 3-for-3 from behind the arc. A pair of free throws in the final
minute of the game gave Huber his first double-digit scoring night of the season. He finished with 11 points.
Neither team started the game shooting well as it took over two minutes for anyone to get on the scoreboard. Hawaii scored first from short range to give the Warriors a 2-0 lead that lasted only long enough for Carroll to hit his first 3-pointer of the night. The Aggies would never trail from that point.
On their next trip down the floor, Carroll found Harris under the basket with a smart pass that freed up the Aggie forward to increase the USU lead to 5-2.
The Aggie lead would get up to as much as 11 when Durrall Peterson sank a 3-pointer with 10:15 to make the score 18-7. The Warriors narrowed the gap to within five points until Huber hit his second triple-point-basket of the game making it 21-13.
Hawaii would never get closer for the rest of the half. Going into the intermission Utah State lead by a commanding 36-19.
The opening minutes of the second half was a fairly even affair as both sides traded baskets. Two minutes in, David Pak intercepted a Hawaii pass and followed it with a nifty dish off to Harris for one of Pak’s team high 6 assists.
With 17:05 to play, Harris put in another short-range bucket to put the Aggies up 43-23. At this point, Hawaii went on a 17-4 run with the only Utah State points coming from two sets of free throws. The Aggies did not score a field goal for nearly 10 minutes. Not until the 7:50 mark did Carroll knock down a baseline triple to put a halt to the Hawaii come back and maintain a 50-40 Aggie lead. A second unanswered 3-pointer from Carroll, less than a minute later, seemed to give the Aggies enough momentum to win.
The closing minute saw a pair of surprises. The first came just as time-out was called after Huber successfully made his second free throw -- the main lights in the Spectrum went out. Luckily the old lights over the court were able to come on with limited delay, while the new, higher intensity lights remained dim for the remainder. The second surprise came as the last Aggie bucket of the night. On a fast break Jaycee Carroll went full-tilt toward the hoop and the 6-foot 2-inch guard shocked the crowd with two-handed dunk.
The win was enough to keep Utah State in contention with Louisiana Tech for top spot in the WAC. USU is a full game back from LTU and a full game ahead of third-place Nevada.
The Aggies hit the road for the rest of the week to take on fourth-place New Mexico State on Thursday and then a tough test on Saturday as they travel to Louisiana Tech. Utah State will then return home to face New Mexico State on Saturday, February 11.
You can email feedback, or comments and suggestions to Amos at amosnaismith@trueaggies.com