USU tops Fresno St. in WAC opener

FRESNO STATE 53  UTAH STATE  72

LOGAN, UTAH — Preston Medlin scored 19 points on 6-of-9 shooting to lead Utah State past Fresno State 72-53 in the Western Athletic Conference opener for both teams Thursday night.

Kyisean Reed added 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting and pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds for the Aggies (9-6, 1-0 WAC). Morgan Grim also scored 10 and grabbed eight rebounds.

The Bulldogs (7-9, 0-1 WAC) were led by Jonathan Wills with 16 points, Jerry Brown with 14 and Kevin Olekaibe with 11.

USU led 46-27, their largest lead before the closing seconds, following a layup by Mitch Bruneel with 15:03 to play.  FSU then employed a full-court press and zone defense to slow the Ags and brought the score to 52-41, with 9:30 to play, which included a 7-1 run

USU, however, broke the press for several breakaway layups and held Olekaibe to only one shot on nine attempts in the second half to keep the game out of reach.

USU shot 65 percent from the field in the game, 70 percent in the first half, while the Bulldogs were 20 of 53 from the field for the game, 37.9 percent. USU also scored 42 of their points in the paint to 28 for Fresno State.

USU had a 13-0 run midway through the first half, including two technical foul shots, to get the score to 23-12 with 8:25 to play. Fresno had taken the early lead behind hot shooting by Olekaibe, who scored eight of Bulldogs’ first 12 points.

FSU worked the score 29-24 before two consecutive 3-point shots by Medlin and dunk at the buzzer from Reed pushed USU to a 37-24 halftime lead.

Fresno State was the last WAC team to come into the Spectrum and win, the season finale in 2007. They are also the only WAC team to sweep USU since it joined the conference. 

It was the 50th overall meeting between the Aggies and Bulldogs, USU leading the series 30-19. FSU is set to join the Mountain West Conference before next season, however.