Ags look for sweep of Boise

After a thrilling come-from-behind victory last Saturday against Northwestern State, the Utah State men’s basketball team will try to complete a season sweep of Boise State on the road Thursday.

The game will start at 7:30 p.m. at Taco Bell Arena in Boise. The game will air on the Aggie Radio Network on 94.5 FM and will be available to watch live online at www.wac.org.

After playing the Broncos, the Aggies will turn around and face Nevada in the Spectrum on Saturday.

“Obviously, it’s a big week for us,” head coach Stew Morrill said. “Hopefully, it will be a fun week. You always perform better when you’re having fun.”

USU beat BSU 75-69 on Jan. 12 in Logan. It was the first-ever Western Athletic Conference home game for the Aggies.

Morrill said his team was lucky to win that game.

“Boise’s record is very deceiving,” he said. “They’ve been snake-bit in a few close games that didn’t go their way.”

The Broncos are led by Coby Karl, son of George Karl, who is the head coach of the Denver Nuggets.

“Karl is as good a player as any in this league,” Morrill said. “He distributes the ball and scores it so well. He could be playing in his daddy’s league someday.”

Karl had 23 points against the Aggies in January.

Besides Karl, Morrill said his biggest concern with BSU in containing their fast break.

“We can’t stop it, but if we can contain it, it could go a long way in helping us,” he said.

Morrill pointed out that BSU is 20-1 under head coach Greg Graham when it scores at least 80 points.

Morrill said he expects the Broncos to put a lot of pressure on David Pak and Chris Huber, the Aggies’ point guards, but expects them to handle it well.

“Teams don’t want to prepare for everything we do, so they try to pressure us out of our offense,” he said. “David’s settled in awfully well. I’ve been less hard on him this year because he’s better. Huber’s got a lot to do with that.”

Eric Lane started for the Broncos in Logan, but Morrill said he now comes off the bench.

“He gives them a lot of energy off the bench,” he said. “He’s very explosive.”

Lane was only 3-for-12 from the field with nine points in the earlier meeting with USU.

Morrill said he expects Chris Session to play in Thursday’s game after sitting out in Saturday’s game.

Thursday’s game will be the final road game of the regular season for USU.

It will return home for Saturday’s game and then games against Fresno State and San Jose State next week.

-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu