Ags staying alive; USU edges past Spartans, advances to next round

Nate Harris scored 19 points and Chaz Spicer added 15 off the bench as the Utah State men’s basketball team escaped with a 76-69 win over San Jose State in the first round of the Western Athletic Conference tournament.

USU led by as many as 14 points in the first half, but the Spartans slowly chipped into the lead, getting to within one point on several occasions down the stretch.

Head Coach Stew Morrill said he was just happy to get a win.

“San Jose has battled tough with us the last two weeks,” he said. “I’m proud of our guys to find a way to win. I’m happy to advance.”

Harris said the game very well could have gone the other way.

“We got one key stop when we needed it,” he said. “We weathered the storm and kept our composure.”

Spicer scored 14 points in last Saturday’s contest against the same team. Spicer said he has stepped up his game because it is the postseason.

“Now’s the time that everyone steps up,” he said. “This is the best time of year for me to do this.”

After scoring just seven points in the first half, Demetrius Brown scored 19 in the second for San Jose. He finished with 26 and Jared Cozad finished with 13, which matched career highs for both Spartans.

The Spartans as a team shot 59.4 percent from the field in the second half after shooting just 28.1 percent in the first.

Jaycee Carroll had only two points at halftime for USU, but finished with 11 points and six assists for the Aggies, including four points in the final three minutes.

“He just hung in there,” Morrill said. “He didn’t let himself get frustrated. He made some big shots at the end. He just kept playing.”

USU was without backup point guard Chris Huber, who was in the hospital with his wife. She is expecting to give birth to twins at any time.

For the second game in a row, Durrall Peterson had to play point guard for USU.

“Durrall did a solid job,” Morrill said. “[Because Huber is out] Pak has to play more minutes and Chris Session has to play more minutes as a result. [Session] did a good job.”

Morrill said he is not counting on Huber returning to the team this weekend.

The Aggies will face the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Friday. The Bulldogs beat Boise State 75-64 Thursday to advance to the tournament semifinals.

Morrill said this game will not be easy for USU.

“We have played two tough ball games with them,” he said. “We have to defend at their level to win. Trying to out-rebound them is an enormous challenge. I think we’ll come out and play hard and play well.”

Morrill said he is not speculating either way if USU needs to win the conference tournament in order to qualify for the NCAA tournament. He did say, however, that he thinks the WAC deserves more than one team.

“I know the Missouri Valley [Conference] and the Colonial [Conference] is tough, but if our league is ninth in the country, we should get more than one team. This league deserves more than one berth.”

-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu