Aggies dominate glass, hold off Nevada for double-digit win

By: Staff Report

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 - 12:05 AM

Nevada forward Joey Shaw shoots during the Wolf Pack’s 76-65 loss to Utah State. Shaw finished the game with 14 points. He was one of three Nevada players to record double figures during the game. Photo by Cody Gochnour/The Utah Statesman

The Nevada men’s basketball team held Utah State to just 39.7 percent shooting (27-of-68) Saturday night. The Wolf Pack, on the other hand, shot 44.1 percent from the floor (26-of-59).

Yet the Aggies cruised to an easy 76-65 win during which it led by as many as 15 points.

Utah State managed to make up for its poor shooting by dominating the glass. The Aggies pulled down 21 offensive rebounds, seven of which came from forward Tai Wesley, who also scored a team-high 19 points.

“We felt we were outworking them,” Wesley told The Herald Journal (Logan, Utah) after the game. “It was really fun to go up and get some rebounds.”

Utah State scored 20 second-chance points off of those offensive rebounds and outscored Nevada 30-18 in the paint. The Wolf Pack was, once again, hindered by its lack of depth.

Only seven of Nevada’s players saw game action and aside from forward Luke Babbitt (20 points), guard Armon Johnson (19 points) and forward Joey Shaw (14 points), no Nevada player scored more than five points.

With the win, the Aggies improved their Western Athletic Conference record to 8-2 (their eighth win in a row) and moved into first place while the Wolf Pack dropped to 5-4 in WAC play – fourth place in the league.

The win also gave Utah State its first regular-season sweep of Nevada since the Aggies joined the Western Athletic Conference in 2005. As for the Wolf Pack, the loss shined light on another team weakness: rebounding.

Nevada has not won a rebounding battle since its 96-67 win over San Jose State Jan. 9 – a span of six games. In those games, opponents are outrebounding the Wolf Pack by an average of 37.8 to 33.

Next up on the schedule for Nevada is a game at Idaho on Wednesday and a home match against Boise State on Saturday.

The sports staff can be reached at sports@nevadasagebrush.com