Ags finish second in conference
When he walked off the court Saturday night, Spencer Nelson said thanks and gave his coach a hug.
In his last regular season game in the Spectrum, the senior Nelson scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead his team to a 65-43 victory over Idaho, securing the No. 2 seed in next week’s Big West Conference tournament.
Head coach Stew Morrill said the night was emotional, but Nelson knows that his Spectrum sendoff isn’t the end of his collegiate career.
“There’s a lot of season left to go,” he said. “I wasn’t saying it’s been fun. I just said thanks.”
Junior forward Nate Harris contributed 13 points and six rebounds. Senior Jason Williams added eight points and five boards.
The rims on Senior Night weren’t as good to Jaycee Carroll. The freshman scored five points on 2-of-12 shooting. He was 0-7 from behind the arc.
In all the Aggies only shot 44.6 percent from the field, but Nelson said a strong defensive effort pushed the game in USU’s favor.
“Everyone was missing shots,” he said. “But we were able to get stops and rebounds. We didn’t have an 11 point lead going into because of our offense, it was our defense.”
Idaho – a team that typically plays man-to-man defense – slowed the pace of the game with a zone, giving the Ags trouble offensively.
“I thought Idaho did a good job of having a game plan to try and get us out of rhythm,” Morrill said.
Despite the Aggies’ woes from the floor, Idaho had even more difficulty shooting. Senior Dandrick Jones scored 21 points, but no other Vandal had more than seven.
“We defended them really well,” Morrill said. “They had a heck of a time scoring.”
The Vandals finished the night shooting 30 percent from the field.
Finishing second in the conference, the Aggies secured a first-round bye in the conference tournament.
With only one game last week, and more than a week before their next game, Morrill said the Aggies will need an active week of practice.
“We’ve got to get a lot of live action in practice to simulate game conditions,” he said. “But getting some days off for our legs can only be good.”
USU will play the highest remaining seed in the tournament at 8:30 p.m. Friday in Anaheim, Calif.
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