by Amos Naismith
February 20, 2006 (c) TrueAggies.com
Exclusive to TrueAggies.com

LOGAN, Utah – Utah State eked out a 66-63 victory in the final minute and five seconds of play over visiting Northwestern State in the ESPN Bracket Buster presented by eBay at the Spectrum on Saturday night.

As has been the case for much of this year, the Aggie offense was carried by its lethal inside-outside combination of Nate Harris and Jaycee Carroll. 69.7% of all USU scoring came from the duo against the Demons.

After only scoring 8 points in the first half, Nate Harris exploded for 19 in the second for 27 total points, while he pulled down 12 rebounds for the night. Jaycee Carroll added 19, including some extremely vital free throws in the final minute for USU.

The Aggies fell behind early, despite gaining a short 4-3 as a result of a Cass Matheus lay-in at 18:15 in the first. The Demons then went on a 12-2 run for the next six and a half minutes to take a 15-6 lead.

Utah State battled back and got within one point, with 6:23 remaining, from another lay-in by Matheus, making the score 18-17 in favor of Northwestern State. The visitors then took a 16-4 run into half time putting the Aggies at a 34-21 deficit.

Before the Demons knew what hit them, the Aggies scored nine points in the first two minutes of the second period. Harris drove to the hole for two, followed by a David Pak triple, then Harris again for two, and finally Carroll sank a two-point jumper making the score 34-30, and the Aggies only trailing by four, with 18:00 to play.

For the next eight minutes all USU scoring came from Harris as he tallied 8 points. Meanwhile, NSU racked up 19 points to give the Demons a 49-38 lead at the 10:00 mark.

Carroll then kick started another Aggie comeback with back-to-back 3-pointers.

The Ags tied it up two minutes later at 49-49 off a Matheus dunk. Harris intercepted a pass and was just about to break away down the court when he saw Matheus all alone under the basket. Harris lobbed a pass to the Brazilian who turned and threw down a two-handed jam.

NSU sank a free throw to regain their lead, but Nick Hammer responded with foul shot of his own tying the game back up at 50-50. Hammer had a chance to give the Aggies their first lead since the beginning minutes of the game but missed his second shot from the line.

The Demons increased their lead getting as many as six points ahead of the Aggies with 4:35 to play. It wasn’t until 1:45 that Pak hit a 3-point-basket bringing the score level at 61-61.

With 1:06 on the clock, Chaz Spicer sank a foul shot to give USU the lead at 62-61. NSU responded with two free throws with less than a minute to go putting the Aggies in a 63-62 hole.

Carroll went to the line at the 0:39.7 mark and sank both of his foul shots giving a 64-63 Aggie lead.

Clifton Lee, Northwestern State’s leading scoring with 20 points, went to the line for two shots with 0:10.4 remaining and missed both chances. Carroll came down with the rebound on the second shot and was fouled with 0:07.5 on the clock. He made both of his free throws.

NSU’s last effort for three, to send the game into overtime, hit nothing but iron and then fell safely into Harris’ hands.

Utah State will return to Western Athletic Conference action as it travels to Boise State (13-12, 5-8) on Thur., Feb. 23 at 7:35 p.m. (MT). USU's next home game will be on Sat., Feb. 25 when it host Nevada (20-5, 9-3) at 7:05 p.m. in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.

You can email feedback, or comments and suggestions to Amos at amosnaismith@trueaggies.com