Taking on the WAC’s best
USU welcomes into the Spectrum the nationally ranked Nevada Wolf Pack on Thursday night. Nevada comes into the game ranked No. 9 overall in the nation and will look to stop USU’s current 14 home-game winning streak.
The Aggies will try and avoid their first three-game losing streak since the 1998-99 season, a span of 253 games.
The Wolf Pack was the last team to beat USU at home, and they were also victorious on Jan. 27 in a 79-62 win at Nevada.
The last time a top ten team came to play in the Spectrum was in 1998, when then ninth-ranked Utah came to Logan and lost 62-54.
And the last time Nevada and USU met, Nevada big man Nick Fazekas scored 24 points, pulled down 18 rebounds and blocked three shots.
“Fazekas is a good player, but everyone has a weakness. There is a way of stopping everyone; you just have to find it out,” Aggie big man Stephen DuCharme said.
DuCharme will have the responsibility to slow down Fazekas, and he said playing good offense will be part of his defensive strategy.
“I am going to try and get him in foul trouble by taking it at him on offense,” DuCharme said.
For the season, Fazekas is second in the Western Athletic Conference in scoring at 20.9 points per game. He trails only USU’s Jaycee Carroll, who is averaging 21.6 points a game and has been on a scoring tear as of late.
“I think I have locked in mentally over the last few weeks and have been able to think the game through more than just react. Also, I have had teammates who have been able to find me,” Carroll said.
Over the past six games, Carroll has averaged 27.5 points a game. But he knows the Aggies will have to play good team defense if they stand a chance against their top ten-ranked opponent.
“We’re going to have a very good defensive effort as a team. We can’t let all of those big guns go off,” Carroll said.
He referred to the guns of Fazekas and guards Marcelus Kemp (17.5 ppg), Ramon Sessions (13.4 ppg) and Kyle Shilo (9.9 ppg).
“Defensively we’ll do what we do with man defense and will switch into zone to give them some different looks and keep them on their toes,” Carroll said.
Aggie guard Kris Clark agreed with Carroll that it will have to be a team defensive effort.
“Players like Fazekas are going to get his. You got to contain him and do the best defensive job you can on the others,” Clark said.
Another big factor for the Aggies will be the crowd. USU is undefeated at home this year, and the players believe that is something to look at.
“That helps us out a lot. It gets us going, the crowd, playing in the Spectrum. We’re undefeated at home, and that says something,” DuCharme said.
Kris Clark agrees.
“We haven’t lost at home all season,” he said.
“Hopefully all the students come out and are really loud and hang with us the whole game,” Carroll said. “There will be some ups and downs, and hopefully they stay with us and help us drown them out and help us suffocate them.”
Tip-off is scheduled for 7:05 p.m., and the game will be televised locally on KJZZ Channel 14.