USU beats out Pacific for championship
ANAHEIM, Calif. – With 10 seconds left to play in the Big West Conference Championship game, Utah State Head Coach Stew Morrill started to relax.
After watching his team suffer a last-second collapse against Pacific earlier this season, Morril had reason for concern, but knew the Aggies’ 65-52 lead was safe.
In their final game in the Big West, the Ags won their fifth championship in seven years – earning them an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.
With most of the Aggies’ six loses coming in close contests, Morrill said he wanted to keep his team’s confidence high going into the tournament.
“I’ve never once told a team that they were going to win the tournament, but I started telling this team three weeks ago they were going to win,” he said. “They must have [believed me].”
Coming off screens and finding open looks at the basket all game, freshman Jaycee Carroll led the way for the Ags with 22 points, earning him tournament MVP honors.
“Our coaches always say the advantage goes to the aggressor,” he said. “I just came out and attacked as hard as I could.”
“We put in a play a couple weeks ago that Pacific hadn’t seen,” Morrill said of the screen and handoff design that allowed Carroll to get his looks. “Jaycee thought that was like sliced bread.”
Senior Spencer Nelson added 16 points and five rebounds for the Aggies.
Nelson and the rest of the Aggies’ post players played well defensively against the Tigers, limiting Pacific’s top scorer, Guillaume Yango, to just six points.
“Yango has had our number for quite awhile,” Nelson said. “For the most part we were fighting and making it hard for [Pacific] to get the ball into him.”
Down by 37-36 midway through the second half, the Aggies put together a 20-3 run to secure the victory.
“We got on 37 and I wanted to kick the scoreboard to get it to 38,” Pacific head coach Bob Thomason said.
“We were mixing our defenses and they just kind of got out of rhythm,” Morrill said.
Senior Jason Williams entered the conference tournament with the a “good mindset,” and played aggressively in the two wins. Williams added five points and a career-high eight rebounds against the Tigers.
“I insulted him before both games and that must have been good,” Morrill said. “I told him that the other teams weren’t going to give him a whole lot of respect … and he responded.”
USU 84, Fullerton 77
After stumbling out of the gates, the Ags rallied to beat Cal State Fullerton 84-77 in the semi-finals of the BWC tournament.
The Titans jumped out to a 10-2 lead, but behind the play off Matheus and junior forward Nate Harris, USU hung tough and beat the third-seeded Fullerton.
Matheus and Harris finished the game with 21 points each.
For Fullerton, senior Yaphett King scored 26 points and Jermaine Harper shot 7-11 from behind the arc and finished with 21.
“For awhile, I thought harper was going to win the game by himself,” Morrill said.
Fullerton coach Bob Burton said a deep Aggie bench played a big factor in the outcome of the game.
“It seemed like they were playing the whole city of Logan, and we were playing six guys,” he said.
With the loss, the Titans were eliminated from the conference tournament and accepted an NIT bid. Fullerton upset Oregon State and San Francisco in the first two rounds of the tournament and will take on Georgetown Monday.
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USU senior Spencer Nelson hugs teammate John Neil after the Aggie´s win over Pacific in the final game of the Big West tournament. (Photo by Jessica Alexander)