Spartans over the Aggies 70-67

Earlier today, we emailed out a post to our San Jose State fans titled "We have us a race in the WAC" -- well, we had us a game tonight at The Event Center with San Jose State triumphing over Utah State 70-67.

Here's how the last minute or so went down: Chris Oakes put in a layup at the 1:03 mark to make it 70-63 San Jose State. Two Kris Clark free throws then cut the lead to five, 70-65.

With 48.6 remaining, C.J. Webster missed a free throw and Aggie star Jaycee Carroll then hit a driving layup to make the score 70-67 with 38 ticks on the clock.

Jamon Hill was fouled but the Spartans again missed the foul shot and Utah State had the ball with half a minute left.

Clark, Carroll and Gary Wilkinson all fired up three-pointers but each attempt was off target and finally the ball went out of bounds off San Jose State with 3.1 seconds remaining.

After timeouts, Carroll lofted an inbounds pass from the right corner baseline but it was intercepted by Tim Pierce, who was immediately fouled.

Pierce also missed the free throw and a Carroll desperation shot from three quarters court didn't come close.

The Spartans played an efficient and productive first half and led 41-30 after the first 20 minutes. The SJSU frontcourt duo of C.J. Webster and Chris Oakes sliced and diced through, around and over the Aggies, commanding the paint.

Utah State's cause wasn't aided when forward Tai Wesley was ejected from the game at the 18:32 mark for a flagrant foul.

Carroll, who was bothered all night by Tim Pierce's height advantage and defensive play, scored just four points in the opening 11 minutes. He finished with 31 but the previous declaration remains accurate.

To provide a sense of how San Jose State dominated the first half, the Spartans led 16-9 at the 11:54 mark and Utah State had already been whistled for seven fouls up to then to just three for SJSU. A Pierce three-pointer elevated the lead to 30-17 with 7:20 remaining.

Carroll had 13 points at the half but that was matched by Pierce's 13. To his credit, Carroll ended with 31 points on 12-22 shooting. He also led USU with eight rebounds -- quite the telling sign when a 6-2 backcourter tops his team in boardplay.

Junior college transfer Gary Wilkinson played 32 minutes but missed all five of his shots from the floor, two from long range. However, he did grab six rebounds. Wilkinson scored 15 points in the February 9 game between these two teams.

As a team, the Aggies shot an uncharacteristic 24-57 from the floor -- credit the Spartan defensive play but add an assist to Utah State's having to travel from Hawaii. SJSU out-rebounded USU 34-32 but the most telling stat involved free throws. Despite the Spartan inability to make a foul shot towards the end and also somewhat throughout the game, San Jose State went 15-28 to Utah State's 12-14 -- a foul shot differential of 14. The Spartans had earned 21 foul shots by halftime. In the February 9 earlier game between USU and San Jose State, the Aggies were 28-32 from the foul line to SJSU's 10-15.

Chris Oakes led the way for San Jose with a double-double of 21 points and 12 boards. Tim Pierce added 16, including 4-8 from long distance and C.J. Webster contributed 15 points.

Carroll's 31 points was close to half the Aggie total of 67.

Here's Coach George Nessman on the game: "“We really wanted to prove ourselves to the rest of the conference and our fans this year...We knew we were young, we knew were inexperienced and we had a lot of lessons to be learned, but we wanted to have the kind of season that even our biggest doubters would at least have to say, ‘well, they’re better’, and that our supporters could draw real pleasure from our success, and see the promise in our program going forward.”

Amen.

NOTES: Scout Row was filled tonight with Scotty Stirling of the Sacramento Kings, Chico Auerbach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Dave Bollwinkel of the Boston Celtics among the evaluators present. Of course, they picked the brains of the SpartanHoops staff for our assortment of insight and knowledge -- the most prominent being 'go down to Fourth Street and make a left' when we were asked how to get back on the freeway.