USU runs past San Jose in WAC first-round tournament game
LAS CRUCES, NM — Playing in the opening round of the Western Athletic Conference tournament, Utah State used a quick start to jump out to an early 10-point lead, from which they never looked back as they cruised to a victory over San Jose State 85-65.
The Aggies will now appear in the semifinals of the conference tournament for the ninth straight year as they advance to play Boise State tomorrow at 6 p.m.
Just three minutes into the game, the Aggies held on to a 10-8 lead before making four 3-pointers to spark a 14-1 run. The run led to a 15 point lead at 24-9 with 12:53 left in the first half of play.
“We came out pretty excited and got after them early which was great,” said senior guard Jaycee Carroll.
Carroll scored a game-high 24 points for Utah State on 10-13 shooting, including 4-6 from beyond the arc. More importantly than his points may have been the attention that Carroll garnered from Spartan defenders that led to open shots for freshman forward Tyler Newbold.
“The way things went, we set sceens for me and they showed out and denied me a little bit, Kris Clark made some great reads and just found Ty Newbold wide open,” Carroll said.
Newbold scored 19 points on a red-hot 7-8 shooting, including 5-of-6 from three point range.
“They were flocking to Carroll,” Newbold said. “They were so focused on him that I was able to get some open looks.”
Aside from great play by Carroll and Newbold the Aggies were supported by big games from big men Tai Wesley and Gary Wilkinson. The two post players each scored 15 points and pulled down nine rebounds a peice. Wesley also recorded a Aggie season-high in blocks with six.
“We were on our post guys pretty hard the last couple of days,” head coach Stew Morrill said.
The challenge was in part to the poor defensive performance that the Aggie big men showed in the teams last meeting against San Jose State in which they gave up 52 points to the Spartan big men, including career highs in points from Chris Oakes who scored 21 points. Thursday afternoon Oakes was held to seven points on 2-8 shooting.
“Getting challenged by our coaches in our post defense, it was definately a chip on our shoulder to go out and play better defense,” Wesley said.
San Jose was led by C.J. Webster who scored 16 points and pulled down 9 rebounds.
Utah State now advances to the semifinal round to play Boise State who advanced by beating Hawaii 80-74. The Aggies are 2-0 against the Broncos this year including a 88-69 victory at Boise State in the teams last meeting just last week.
The game tips off at 6 p.m.. and the winner will advance to play in the Championship game on Saturday night. either Nevada or host New Mexico State.
Jaycee Carroll chases down a loose ball during action against San Jose State. USU won the first-round game.