USU falls to Boise State in WAC tourney tilt
LAS CRUCES, NM — Utah State’s bid for a tournament championship and automatic bid to the NCAA tournament came to a close Friday night at the hands of the Boise State Broncos in a 88-78 defeat.
With the loss it will be the first time that the Aggies have not advanced to at least the championship game of the Western Athletic Conference tournament. Utah State’s season, however, is not over yet because they are guaranteed a spot in the National Invitation Tournament because of their number-one seeding in the conference tournament.
? For most of the first half, the semifinal game was tightly contested and after two Gary Wilkinson free throws Utah State held on to a 33-26 lead with 5:30 left in the half. The seven-point lead quickly diminished as Boise State closed the half with a 16-4 run behind the hot shooting of starting guard Matt Bauscher and little-used bench player Aaron Garner.
The two combined to make four 3-pointers in a two-and one-half minute stretch, as well as Garner making three free throws after being fouled on a 3-point shot to help Boise State to a 42-37 halftime lead.
?”Bauscher played very well tonight and obviously the kid off the bench (Garner) made some shots and it really helped them,” head coach Stew Morrill said. “We were playing catch up all night long.”
? After holding Bauscher scoreless in the teams last meeting against Boise State, the senior guard ended up with 23 points on 8-10 shooting. He also had the assigment of guarding Jaycee Carroll and in the second half didn’t allow the Western Athletic Conference’s most valuable player to score untill the 5:50 mark left in the game. Carroll ended up scoring 20 points on 7-of -17 shooting but the senior guard said he let his team down by playing poor on the defensive end.
? “I did a poor job on the defensive end, Bauscher shot 8 for 10 and missed only one three…I was hurting my team by not playing defense, ” Carroll said.
? Garner ended up scoring 14 points off the bench for the Broncos as he shot 4 of 6 from the field, including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. In his previous 10 games the junior had scored a total of 12 points.
? “That was the x-factor, that’s what you need, a guy like that who can sneak in on you,” said Kris Clark.
? To start the second half Utah State quickly allowed Boise State to get up by 10 at 49-39 with 18:23 left to play. After seeing the lead balloon to as many as 16, the Aggies made one last attempt to sneak back into the game as they got to within eight points on a Carroll 3-pointer with 1:45 left to play. The lead would never get any closer as Boise State was able to convert on free throws and break the Aggies full-court press defense.
? “We got outplayed tonight, Boise has won a lot of basketball games, they were aggressive and made their shots, ” Morrill said.
? Utah State now returns home to Logan where they will wait to see who and where they play in the NIT. The announcement will be made Sunday night after the NCAA tournament participants are released.
A dejected USU team leaves the court in Las Cruces. An NIT game awaits the Aggies.
Gary Wilkinson loses the rebounding battle to a BSU player. BSU won this battle and won the war.