March 8, 2008

Final Stats

LOGAN, Utah - Jaycee Carroll scored a game-high 23 points to lead Utah State to a share of its first-ever Western Athletic Conference regular season championship with a 78-58 win against Idaho here at the Cowan Spectrum Saturday night.

Utah State, who finished the regular season with five straight wins, has now won at least 23 games in each of the last nine years. The Aggies concluded WAC play by winning three games in six days to create a four-way tie at the top of the league standings as USU, Nevada, New Mexico State and Boise State all had 12-4 conference records.

Utah State will enter next week's WAC Tournament as the top seed due to its 4-2 record against the three other co-WAC Champions. Nevada will be the second-seed in the tournament, followed by host New Mexico State who is the third seed and Boise State who is the fourth seed. The bottom half of the bracket will feature fifth-seeded Hawai'i, sixth-seeded Idaho, seventh-seeded Fresno State, eighth-seeded San Jose State and ninth-seeded Louisiana Tech.

Gary Wilkinson added 17 points for Utah State as he and Carroll, who had 16 of his points in the second-half, were the only two Aggies to reach double-figures.

Trevor Morris led Idaho with 14 points off the bench, while Clyde Johnson scored 13 and Mike Hall had 10.

Utah State began the game with a 10-2 run and led by 12 at 17-5 with 14:20 to play following a dunk by Tyler Newbold. The visitors, who made eight of its first 11 shots in the game, increased its lead to 39-19 on a dunk by Stephen DuCharme and went into the locker room with a 41-24 halftime advantage.

In the first-half, Utah State shot a blistering 65.4 from the field (17-26) and limited Idaho to just 34.5 percent shooting (4-14). USU was also 3-5 (.600) from three-point range and 4-4 from the free throw line in the opening period, while UI was 4-14 (.286) from behind the arc. The Vandals did not attempt a single free throw in the first period.

Wilkinson and Newbold each scored eight points in the first-half for Utah State, while Johnson had nine for Idaho.

Utah State was never threatened in the second-half as Idaho never got closer than 16 points. USU took its biggest lead of the game at 24 points on a layup by Carroll to make the score 71-47 with 4:59 remaining and the Aggies coasted to the 20-point win.

Utah State finished the game by shooting 63.6 percent from the field (28-44) as compared to just 37.7 percent shooting (20-53) for Idaho. USU was also 19-22 (.864) from the free throw line as compared to 14-19 (.737) shooting at the charity stripe for the Vandals. USU once again dominated the boards, out-rebounded Idaho, 34-19.

Utah State will return to action on Thursday, March 13 when it plays either eighth-seeded San Jose State (12-18) or ninth-seeded Louisiana Tech (6-23) at 2:30 p.m. in the first round of the 2008 WAC Tournament in Las Cruces, N.M. The Bulldogs and Spartans get the tournament started on Tuesday, March 11 with the play-in game at 7:30 p.m. (MT).