Fast start propels Aggies past Pack

BY DARRELL MOODY

Appeal Sports Writer

LOGAN, Utah - There is talk all around the Western Athletic Conference about protecting the homecourt.

Nevada does a pretty solid job at Lawlor Events Center, but nobody does it better than Utah State. Beating the Aggies on their home floor happens rarely and not at all this season.

Thanks to a blistering 67 percent first-half shooting effort, the Aggies improved to 13-0 at home with an easy 77-63 victory over the Wolf Pack Saturday night at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.

The Aggies, who lost by 30 last weekend at New Mexico State, maintained their hold on first place at 6-1, while Nevada dropped to 5-3 and 13-8 overall.

Nevada coach Mark Fox kept his squad in the dressing room for quite a while, and the mood was grim as the players and coaches departed the arena.

"After the first 10 minutes, we played them even," Fox said. "It was the first few minutes that we dug ourselves a huge hole.

"Utah State really shot the ball. It was a great way to start the game. They came out breathing fire. We didn't do a good job of defending them. We have to give them credit for making baskets, but I'm not pleased with our defense. It's a long list of things (we didn't do)."

The huge hole Fox was referring to was the first 51Ú2 minutes when Utah State, thanks to 10 quick points by Jaycee Carroll, bolted to a 20-6 lead. Carroll always plays with a lot of energy, but he seemed even more amped up than usual as he went 8-for-17 from the floor and finished with 24 points.

"Jaycee is a great player," said Nevada guard Brandon Fields, who was one of four players who attempted to contain the Utah State star. "He's a great shooter."

Fox never could find the right formula to slow down Carroll, who was the WAC Preseason Player of the Year.

"We tried a lot of different things," Fox said. "We tried to trap him a few times and used a couple of different defenses. After the first 10 minutes, he slowed down a little bit."

After that initial burst, Nevada didn't go away, cutting the lead to 22-14 thanks to back-to-back 3-pointers by Fields, who finished with 13 points, and JaVale McGee (15 points, 12 rebounds) who scored on two putbacks.

Carroll struck again with two jump shots, one a 3-pointer, and Tai Wesley scored over McGee for a 15-point lead.

The Aggies maintained a comfortable lead that reached 18 points, 45-27, with 2:17 left in the half, as Gary Wilkinson (23 points) and Wesley were a two-man demolition team inside. Wilkinson drained a 3-pointer and converted a three-point play, while Wesley also had six points in that same span on a free throw, a three-point play and a basket.

"Their front line outplayed us," Fox said. "Except for JaVale, we didn't get production from the front line."

Nevada got it down to a respectable 47-36 at the end of the half with a 9-2 run, as McGee followed in a shot and hit the ensuing free throw, Marcelus Kemp (16 points) knocked in a 3-pointer and Armon Johnson drained a triple.

Nevada started nicely in the second half, cutting the Aggies' lead down to eight, 49-41, as McGee and Johnson scored baskets and Kemp added a free throw.

Carroll came back with a floater in the lane, and after Nevada turned the ball over, Wilkinson scored on a putback to get the lead back into double digits at 53-41 with 15:54 remaining.

Only one time did Nevada get the deficit under 10 points, and that came with 12:44 left when Johnson grabbed a loose ball and scored to make it 54-45. Utah State responded with an 8-2 run to increase the lead to 15 points.

While Wilkinson had a great offensive night, he spent most of the post game talking about the Aggies' defense.

"Coming off the New Mexico State game, defense is something we really looked at really hard and questioned our personal integrity with what are you going to do to help the team get better," Wilkinson said. "That is where we need to focus. I think we really executed tonight."

Utah State held Nevada to 39 percent from the floor, its lowest mark since the Pack shot 37.1 percent in a loss at Pacific.

"It was a lack of execution," Kemp said. "A lot of us, including myself, didn't play very smart (at times)."

It still came down to the opening portion of the game. That set the tempo, and Nevada never really got untracked.

"I thought we played real solid from the start of the game, and we played hard defensively," Utah State coach Stew Morrill said. "This is just a great win for us. It's nice to be at home, and we did what we needed to do to win the basketball game.

"Nevada has a lot of players that can beat you, but we had a lot of guys step up and play really well. It was a great start for us and it was a big factor to have that cushion at the beginning of the game. We didn't back own and we played aggressive. We got a home win and needed to defend our homecourt for sure."

• Contact Darrell Moody at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com, or by calling 881-1281.