Hawaii battle gives USU another chance at Nevada

It was an expensive ticket to the mainland for Hawaii fans to watch their team lose in the first round of the WAC tournament as USU won 73-70 on Thursday. Hawaii had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds of the game to send it into overtime but Matt Lojeski’s shot was just off and the Aggies advanced to the second round of the WAC tournament in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where they will face Nevada. “That’s the kind of type of game you would expect from a four-five match-up and the kind of game I expected,” said USU head coach Stew Morrill. “[It was] very physical with lots of ebbs and flows. We made it interesting at the end with missed free throws and lack of rebounding. That was a very good win for us, a very good Hawaii team.” The Aggies started the game off with 3-point shots by senior forward Durrall Peterson and junior guard Jaycee Carroll, but Hawaii responded with two of their own – one by Bobby Nash and the other by Matt Gibson. From there on out it was neck and neck with the largest Hawaii lead being five points and the largest for the Aggies being eight points. Nash provided much of the momentum and scoring attack for the Warriors in the first half as he scored 13 points, nine of which were off 3-point baskets. The Aggies struggled to contain him as he would find an open shot from the outside wings. The Aggies responded to his attack with high scoring by Carroll, who had 12 points in the first half. He was joined in double-digit scoring early on by senior forward Chaz Spicer, who added 10 points. Spicer finished the game with 20 points and eight rebounds while converting on 7-of-8 free throw shooting. Commenting on Spicer’s performance, Morrill said, “Well he’s been playing well offensively. When he gets it going we’re going to go to him. We felt we had an advantage when they went small. We kept going to him and he responded.”It’s really what I expected to be honest with you. He’s a senior and his career is winding down and I expected him to step up like this and I’m sure he expected that of himself.”But Spicer wasn’t the only player on the court to score at least 20 points. Carroll finished with 24 points while Lojeski and Nash scored 20 and 22 points respectively. Lojeski and Nash provided a nine-point run at the end of the first half to tie the score at 36. The duo continued their high-scoring attack throughout the second half to steal the lead from the Aggies at one point. The Warriors matched the Aggies in almost every statistical category and had multiple opportunities to seize the win, but couldn’t get their inside game going well enough to provide the extra edge required to win.Hawaii has a veritable arsenal of threats both inside and outside but the Aggies were able to contain two of their top players to less than 10 points. Hawaii’s Gibson, who scored 20 points on the Aggies when they visited the island, was limited to just nine points and shot 33 percent from the field. Another typical high-scorer for the Warriors that was shut down was big-man Ahmet Gueye, who only posted seven points.”Gibson really got away from us on the island this year and was really the difference I thought in the game over there,” Morrill said. “We’ve done a better job on him in the last two games.”One of the major contributing factors to USU’s win was Carroll’s career-high 13 rebounds. Although the Warriors out-rebounded the Aggies 41-36, Carroll pulled down more rebounds than any other player on the court.”Today I was able to get a lot of rebounds because our big man and their big man kept tipping it around I was able to chase down the tip outs they’d get,” Carroll said about his rebounding game. “I came with a lot of energy and was excited and determined to get some rebounds today and that’s kind of the way it worked out.” Carroll led the team in scoring at 24 points and provided one free throw in the final seconds of the game to put the Aggies up by three points – the margin by which they would win. “Last time I played in Logan I wasn’t very happy with the way I played,” Carroll said. “I felt I was very complacent. I didn’t attack a lot and I knew Hawaii was up to a big challenge. I was just able to get some looks today.” The Aggies had four players in double digit scoring on the game. In addition to Carroll and Spicer, Peterson and junior forward Stephen DuCharme both posted big numbers at 10 points apiece. With the win the Aggies advance to the semifinal round of the WAC tournament where they will face No. 9 Nevada, a team they squeaked by at the Spectrum 79-77 on March 1. The Wolf Pack easily blew past Idaho Thursday 88-56. The victory didn’t come without a cost though as Nevada senior guard Kyle Shiloh sustained a leg injury which took him out of the game and will likely prevent him from playing in the semifinal match against USU. Carroll said this could be good news for the Aggies as Shiloh has given Carroll trouble. His tight guarding limited Carroll to just 15 points when the Aggies played Nevada on the road on January 27. With Carroll free from Shiloh’s tight shadow, the Aggie star might have more looks to score. Commenting on the upcoming Nevada game, Morrill said, “When we go through things tomorrow it should come back to our guys pretty quickly, all the good stuff they run. By the time you get to this point in the year there’s not a lot of surprises. It’s up to the players to block them and compete. We’re awfully happy to compete in that game and we’re going to go out and do well.” The Aggies will take on Nevada at the Pan American Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico at 6 p.m. tonight. -sethhawkins@cc.usu.edu