WAC champs!
The No. 17 Utah State Aggies headed into the Western Athletic Conference tournament with the goal to come out on top.
Behind the play of junior guard Brockeith Pane and senior forward Tai Wesley, the Aggies were able to claim the WAC tournament title and earn the right to advance on to the NCAA tournament. As the Aggies have all season, they had to rely on defense and rebounding to win two games in two nights. With the tournament victory, the Aggies garnered more accolades.
The Aggies faced the eighth-seeded San Jose State Spartans in the semifinal on Friday, March 11, and barely escaped with a hard-fought victory, 58-54. Two crucial technical foul calls against the Spartans lead to four free-throws, all of which to Aggies made, and proved to be the difference in the game.
“The game may have been a surprise to a lot of people watching, but it wasn’t a surprise to us,” Aggie head coach Stew Morrill said. “San Jose always plays us tough. They have momentum going. We shot ourselves in the foot a few times when we could have made it a little easier. We get up by a decent margin, and then can’t rebound the ball and things like that.”
In the first half the Aggies struggled greatly with their shooting percentage, and they allowed their opponent to out-rebound them, which is a rare occurrence. The Aggies did take a four-point lead into the locker room however, and the Aggies have not lost a game this season after leading at halftime.
“Coach was on us halftime about rebounding,” Wesley said. “We weren’t getting good shots at the end of the shot clock, but they were scrambling so it was a good chance for me to run around and get some