Men’s basketball snaps three-game skid

Tai Wesley was grateful the officials were allowing physical play during Friday night’s BracketBusters game at the Spectrum.

Not only did Wesley not get ejected or foul out, he scored 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds to help the Utah State men’s basketball team beat the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos , 72-59.

“Tonight was a little different,” Wesley said. “I only had two fouls, so obviously they weren’t calling much. If I would have had more fouls, I’m sure it would have been a different game. We lost three straight games. I was anxious because I didn’t get to play at San Jose. I felt like I let my team down. That was a one-time deal. I need to handle my business professionally on the court.”

Wesley was ejected from the previous game at San Jose State.

“It’s nice when (Wesley is) available for play,” said USU head coach Stew Morrill. “He was good. Our posts were physical with their posts.”

UCSB head coach Bob Williams was also impressed with the play of the redshirt freshman.

“Wesley had his way with us,” Williams said. “We didn’t do a good job on Wesley. I think he came back from last game with a vengeance. he was just a little too strong and a little too physical.”

Utah State junior Gary Wilkinson pulled down 12 rebounds-the game high-and had 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting.

The outcome of the game was in question until the 5:53 mark of the second half.

That’s when the Aggies (19-9, 8-4 in Western Athletic Conference play) took off on a 12-0 run, which started and ended with Wesley layups. The Aggies built their lead to as many as 16 with 15 seconds remaining.

For the majority of the game the Gauchos pestered the Aggies with a full-court defense. USU seemed unprepared for it in the first half, committing 11 turnovers (four coming from senior guard Kris Clark’s missed passes).

In the second half the Aggies were able to adjust and committed only five turnovers.

“We just kind of relaxed and played our game and got some easy layups,” Wesley said. “It is that time of year. It’s time for us to play our best basketball.”

The Gauchos were effective in keeping a lid on Aggie senior guard Jaycee Carroll. The visitors’ defense consistently cut off the traditional wing pass to Carroll, thus holding him to 15 points (six of those in the first half) on 5-of-13 shooting.

Carroll was able to keep his streak of games with at least one 3-pointer made-now 49-alive, but it didn’t come until just over a minute was left in the game.

The Gauchos were relatively cold shooting. They put up 62 shots compared to USU’s 48, but only made 21 of them.

The Aggies made 26-of-48-good enough for 54.2 percent.

Though the victory doesn’t count toward the Aggies’ record in the WAC, Morrill said he hopes the Aggies can continue their winning ways.

“It’s kind of weird (to play a non-league game),” Morrill said. “We’ve been doing it for three years now. All of a sudden here’s a non-league game. Hopefully we can catch our breath and get back to league and play good basketball.”

The Aggies host the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Thursday at 8:05 p.m.

-samuel.hislop@aggiemail.usu.edu