Last night in the WAC

No big surprises took place but Idaho sure is proving top be resilient.

Travis Mason-Bushman/Vandal Nation has a look at the game from the Idaho perspective.

Vandal Nation
The Argonaut’s Idaho Vandals blog
Vandals fall to Utah State in a hard-fought shootout

The Idaho Vandals took the Western Athletic Conference-leading, nationally-ranked Utah State Aggies right to the wall tonight in the Cowan Spectrum. In the end, though, the Aggies’ big men, big boards and big shots were too much down the stretch, giving Utah State a 62-53 victory.

But the #17 Aggies (24-1, 12-0 WAC) didn’t come at the victory easily, and the 9-point margin is somewhat misleading; Idaho (10-13, 4-6 WAC) owned a tie inside of 7 minutes remaining. A clutch sequence of jumper, steal and layup from Aggie guard Jared Quayle seemed to break the game open. Luciano de Souza, who’s awakened from a shooting slump, responded with a quick 3-pointer that fired the 2,295 fans back up and brought the Vandals within 3 with under four minutes to play...

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Ags outlast Vandals
Shawn Harrison
The Herald Journal
February 13, 2009

MOSCOW, Idaho — Chalk another one up in the hard-to-watch column, but also add another digit in the win column for Utah State.

The No. 21 Aggies (17th in the USA Today/ESPN poll) extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 19 with another close victory Thursday night at the Cowan Spectrum. This time it was against an old friend, as the Don Verlin-led Idaho Vandals just couldn’t make enough plays down the stretch to pull off an upset in Western Athletic Conference action.

USU held a three-point lead with less than two minutes to play, but pulled away for a 62-53 win in front of 2,295 fans...

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Shawn Harrison brings Jared Quayle to the attention of more people:

Quayle comes up big
Shawn Harrison
The Herald Journal
February 13, 2009

MOSCOW, Idaho — When it gets down to the final minutes of a game, Utah State can almost always count on Jared Quayle.

He certainly did his part to keep the Aggies perfect in Western Athletic Conference play Thursday night. He scored 12 points and grabbed six rebounds in USU’s 62-53 win over Idaho.

The junior point guard just has a knack for finishing games off strong, which in turn has helped the 21st-ranked Aggies (17th in the USA Today/ESPN poll) continue to win close, down-to-the-wire contests. Thursday night at the Cowan Spectrum was another prime example.

“He just makes key plays,” USU head coach Stew Morrill said.

Holding on to a 48-46 lead with under four-and-a-half minutes to play, it was Quayle time...

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Here's Jared Eborn with his report:

USU beats Idaho; streak now 19
Jared Eborn
The Deseret News
February 13, 2009

MOSCOW, Idaho — Somehow, Utah State keeps finding a way to win — often in unlikely ways.

Thursday night at the Cowen Spectrum on the University of Idaho campus, Gary Wilkinson — Utah State's back-to-the-basket center — gave the No. 21 Aggies their latest game-changing play and lifted USU to a tighter-than-hoped-for 62-53 decision over the Vandals.

With Idaho threatening to snap Utah State's winning streak, Wilkinson set a high pick for point guard Jared Quayle and then stepped back out of the way. With a trio of Vandal defenders collapsing with just less than two minutes to play, Quayle slipped a pass back to Wilkinson, who swished a 3-pointer from near the top of the key to break Idaho's back.

The shot gave Utah State — now owners of a 19-game winning streak — a six-point lead they were able to make hold up.

It also gave the Aggies at least a share of the Western Athletic Conference regular-season title with six league games to play...

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Nevada got real healthy with an easy road win over San Jose State. Chris Murray has a pair of articles.

Road warriors pick up win at SJSU
Chris Murray
Reno Gazette-Journal

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Maybe there's something about the road that brings out the best in the Nevada basketball team. Same goes with Joey Shaw.

Shaw came off the bench to torch San Jose State for a career-best 23 points -- 16 in the first half -- to lead the Wolf Pack past the Spartans, 80-68, in front of 1,622 fans at The Events Center.

The junior knocked down his first six shot attempts -- four 3-pointers, a 15-foot fadeaway and a layup -- to help give Nevada a 42-23 lead at halftime. The Wolf Pack coasted to the victory from there, playing one of its most complete and lopsided games of the season.

"Coach has been on me, preparing me during practices and it just carried over to the game," said Shaw, who is averaging 10.5 points per road game this season as opposed to 6.2 per home game. "The ball felt really good tonight, like you can't miss, so you just keep shooting."

Nevada coach Mark Fox said after the game that he had a feeling Shaw would play well based off the past couple of games and practices...

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plus

Role reversal as Wolf Pack drubs SJSU (with quotes)
Chris Murray
Reno Gazette-Journal
2/13/2009

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- I was talking with a friend before Nevada's game against San Jose State on Thursday and he asked me who I thought was going to win the game. I said, "Nevada could win by 15 points and I wouldn't be surprised." After a pause, I added: "Nevada could lose by 15 points and I wouldn't be surprised, either." That's just kind of how this Wolf Pack team has run of late -- hot and cold. Luckily for Nevada fans, it was much closer to that 15-point win -- an 80-68 victory to be exact.

It was also a night of role reversals as role players Joey Shaw (23 points, five 3-pointers, three blocks) and Malik Cooke (17 points on 8-of-9 shooting) were the stars, and stars Luke Babbitt (13 points, four assists) and Armon Johnson (13 points, five assists) were the role players. Overall, it was the best offensive night of the season for the team as the Pack shot 62.3 percent. The Nevada defense was also stellar in the first half and solid in the second. On to Hawaii for the Pack. As for me, back to Reno. Here are your post-game quotes:

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Heck, here's is our writeup -- which obviously pales in comparison to Murray's offering but we did have one cute reference:

It was a-l-m-o-s-t a tale of two halves but Dickens would have haltingly penned it something like this if he was covering the contest: "It was the worst of times, it was sort of the best of times...at moments..." as Nevada had it's way the initial 20 minutes and actually put the game away then owning a 42-23 halftime lead.

At the 11:57 mark, Nevada led 23-10. With 7:35 on the clock, San Jose State cut the deficit to 10 at 30-20. But with 3:20 remaining, it was back to 17 at 38-21.

In that opening period, the Wolf Pack's Joey Shaw -- entering the game 4-24 from three-point range in league play -- enjoyed a Shaw-shooting-redemption by nailing 4-5 from long distance. He had 16 points at the half and finished the game with 23 -- a career high. Nevada made two thirds of its shot attempts in the first 20 minutes.

A pair of treys from Robert Owens cut the deficit to 11 -- 46-35 -- at the 17 minute mark but Nevada refused to budge any further.

The Spartans weren't necessarily missing the huge offensive role Adrian Oliver usually plays -- he sat out the game with an ankle injury -- however it certainly was a factor. But it was more the defense again that did SJSU in the most as the Wolf Pack shot 33-53 -- 63% -- as a team.

For the game, Owens led the Spartans with 17 points, buoyed by 5-9 three-point shooting. C.J. Webster added 15 points.

Nevada managed a startling nine blocked shots and rebounding turned out to be about even -- 30 for the Pack and 28 for the Spartans, including 16 offensive boards.

It was dog-eat-dog in Ruston last night and an appropriately 'ugly' games since it involved Bulddogs (Hey, we love 'em as one of the fun dogs to have and own) going against each other.

Nothing pretty in all-'Dogs matchup
Fresno State men lose a dog of a game at Louisiana Tech.
Bryant-Jon Anteola
The Fresno Bee

The chant could be heard midway through the first half Thursday, with the few fans who attended the matchup of the Western Athletic Conference's cellar-dwellers yelling a classic.

U-G-L-Y. You ain't got no alibi. You ugly.

Whatever it was directed at or whomever it was meant for, the chant was a fitting ring to Fresno State's 55-42 loss at Louisiana Tech before an announced crowd of 1,721 at the Thomas Assembly Center.
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The game featured 20 turnovers from Louisiana Tech, 17 from Fresno State, along with a combined 48 personal fouls -- all of which prevented any type of pace or flow from developing...

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Ron Tyler and A Closer Look at LA TECH Hoops offers this:

Fresno Recap
February 13, 2009 ·

Final 55-42 Tech

I was very interested to see how Tech played tonight against the one WAC opponent that had absolutely destroyed Tech the last time they play. Long story short it was ugly. From both teams. Lots of turnovers. Bad shooting. However one player had a special night. Kyle Gibson was at his best. But more on that later.

Thoughts on one player’s great game and 17 others having bad ones.

Starters
Guyton
Gibson
Loe
Rolle
Rogers

* Kyle Gibson better be WAC player of the week. If not someone else must drop 40. He scored all night. He drained NBA threes. He made his first eight shots before finally missing a contested one late. In 39 minutes he went 8 for 9 from the field, 6 for 6 from deep, 4 for 4 from the charity stripe. That’s 26 points. But the most magnificent part of his game wasn’t even his shooting. It was his defense. He was matched up man for man on Paul George the future lottery pick who at 6′7 had three inches on Kyle. Monday George dropped 29 and 10 on Boise. With Kyle on him George went 1 for 6, 8 points, with six turnovers. Did I mention Kyle had five steals. You do the math. WAC player of the Week or I’ll calling Karl Benson...

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