Utah State defeats Vandals
MOSCOW, Idaho – As it turned out, the Utah State Aggies had more to play for Saturday than the Idaho Vandals.
Utah State captured the No. 1 seed in the Western Athletic Conference tournament with a telling 78-58 victory before a crowd of 1,383 at the Cowan Spectrum in the regular-season finale.
The Aggies (23-9, 12-4) finished in a four-way tie for the WAC championship with Nevada, Boise State and New Mexico State. USU won the tiebreaker for the top seed because it had a 4-2 record against the other three teams.
Idaho (8-20, 5-11) earned the sixth seed and will take on tourney host and No. 3 New Mexico State (19-13, 12-4) in a quarterfinal matchup Thursday. The game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. PDT.
Idaho’s worst WAC loss came at NMSU (88-49) in early February.
USU will meet the winner of Tuesday’s play-in game between No. 8 San Jose State and No. 9 Louisiana Tech. In the other quarterfinal matchups, No. 2 Nevada takes on No. 7 Fresno State and No. 4 Boise State goes against No. 5 Hawaii.
Idaho finished tied with Fresno State. But the Vandals got the sixth seed based on tiebreaking criteria.
The Vandals played their final home game without starting junior point guard Jordan Brooks. Idaho’s leader in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals was suspended one game for what coach George Pfeifer called conduct detrimental to the team.
Brooks’ absence was obvious. What the Vandals couldn’t overcome, though, was the Aggies’ hot shooting.
“We had a lot on the line,” USU senior guard Jaycee Carroll said. “I was glad our guys recognized that (and) came out with some energy. We were able to jump on Idaho pretty quickly and at least play even with them the rest of the game. We shot a great percentage.”
USU started hot and got hotter as the game progressed. The Aggies made 12 of their first 15 shots. Pooh Williams made the 12th basket, a 9-foot jumper, to extend the Aggies’ lead to 29-14 with 9:12 to go before halftime.
The Aggies made 17 of 26 shots (65.4 percent) in the first half for a 41-24 lead at intermission. USU made 9 of 13 shots in building its biggest lead at 75-51 with 2:46 to go before cooling off with reserves playing the final 2 minutes.
Oddly enough, Idaho defended Carroll, an All-American candidate and the WAC’s leading scorer, well in the first half. With Terrence Simmons and Trevor Morris taking turns on Carroll, the Aggie had just seven points in the opening 20 minutes.
But Carroll broke loose in the second half, scoring 17 of his game-high 23 points.
“They were physical,” Carroll said of the Vandals. “They had a game plan. They switched a guy in and when he got tired they switched a new guy to guard me. And then he got tired and they switched another guy. They had a three- or four-man rotation on me. It got me off to a slow start, but somehow I was able to kind of sneak away and get some looks.”
The Vandals struggled running their offense without Brooks. Morris spent the most time at the point, finishing with a team-high 14 points. Clyde Johnson, one of three seniors playing the final time in Moscow, had 13.
“We came out slow and they came out not missing at all,” Johnson said. “We couldn’t buy a bucket. Once we gathered ourselves we started playing. But it was too late.”
Johnson said the Vandals missed Brooks.
“It goes to show you need a point guard to win the game,” Johnson said. “Jordan’s almost a double-double all the time. He gets close to triple-doubles a lot. It was a tough game to play without him, and it showed.”
Pfeifer was thrilled to earn the sixth seed – even if it means playing the tourney host.
“Everybody picked us – media, coaches – to finish last in the WAC and we’re sixth,” Pfeifer said. “That’s what we’re going to focus on right now. I’m proud of our kids and what they’ve done. They’ve been resilient and stayed the course.”