Medlin leads USU past pesky UTSA in WAC opener

USU junior guard Preston Medlin drives for a shot against UC Davis on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012. Medlin scored a season-high 23 points in Utah State's 73-63 win.

<strong>SAN ANTONIO— </strong>Utah State went on the road to face a gritty University of Texas at San Antonio for the first WAC conference game of the Aggies’ season. USU held off the upset-minded Roadrunners in a 71-67 Aggie victory.

Preston Medlin led all scorers with 24 points on 9-of-15 shooting on the night. Spencer Butterfield and Jarred Shaw chipped in 14 and 11 points respectively for the Aggies. Shaw also had nine rebounds, just missing out on another double-double this season. Jordan Sims led UTSA with 20 points including six 3-point buckets.

After a less than stellar start, the Aggies (10-1, 1-0) ended the first half on a 14-2 run to lead UTSA by a score of 39-31 at the break. Preston Medlin led the Aggies with 14 points in the first half.

Utah State was an incredible 70 percent from the field in the first half and 62 percent for the game on 28-of-45 shooting. This included a 45 percent effort from behind the arc. The Aggies held UTSA to 39 percent shooting from the floor.

Despite the difference in shooting percentage, USU only made three more total buckets than the Roadrunners. A combination of Aggie turnovers and UTSA offensive rebounds allowed the Roadrunners to shoot 64 shots compared to the mere 45 shots put up by Utah State.

The 11 turnovers by the Aggies wasn’t the worst outing they have had this season but the team only had eight assists the entire night.

UTSA outrebounded Utah State 32-31, a feat not easily done against this year’s Aggie squad. The Roadrunners had 16 offensive rebounds compared to the Aggies’ 5 offensive boards.

The Aggies improve to 10-1 for just the seventh time in team history. The last time USU went 10-1 to start the season was back in 2008-09 when the team went 24-1 in its first 25 games. Utah State has now won five of its last six WAC openers.

USU will spend New Year’s Eve playing at Texas State for their second WAC game of the season. The Bobcats are 4-9 and 0-1 in WAC play after falling to San Jose State in their first ever WAC matchup Saturday.

<em><strong>@heywood_kyle</strong></em>

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