Aggies pick up convincing win over Nevada at home

LOGAN – Strong shooting from Utah State led to a 75-62 win over the Nevada Wolfpack. The win improved the Aggies to 7-5 in conference and 14-10 overall.

“Any conference win is a good win whenever you can get one,” Head coach Stew Morrill said. “They are hard to come by in this league.”

Moore set the tone of the game by scoring the first seven points. He drove to the hoop and made his first basket just 26 seconds in. After that, the score was never tied and the Aggies never trailed.

“I just tried to come out aggressively and I happened to hit my first three shots or so,” Moore said. “Made them call a timeout and kind of fueled our team a little bit.”

The Aggies shot 63.6% (14-22) from the field through the first half, but a 17-9 rebounding advantage for the Wolfpack helped Nevada keep it close through the majority of the half.

“Defensively we struggled in the first half,” Morrill said. “We did a little better in the second half. But offensively we were pretty crisp. We shot a high percentage, we had lots of assists, very few turnovers. Those are good stats.”

It wasn’t until freshman Julion Pearre broke the game open by scoring USU’s last nine points of the half that the Aggies were able to really pull away. USU went into the break up 42-33.

“My teammates were able to find me and I got some good looks,” Pearre said of his strong first-half finish that included back-to-back 3s. “They were driving and kicking and making some good plays and I was able to knock them down.”

The Aggies carried the momentum into the second half and outscored the Wolfpack 16-6 during the first six minutes. The run gave USU a game-high 19-point lead, but Nevada fought back and went on an 11-1 run of their own to bring the score within 10. That was as close as the Aggies let them get.

Chris Smith had game-high 18 points. Moore scored 17 and David Collette added another 14.

“We’re always going to go to Jalen,” Morrill said. “Jalen and David are good options for us. If we can establish that it helps us.”

One of the few negatives for USU was the struggle to rebound. The Wolfpack outrebounded the Aggies 33-20 and had 17 offensive rebounds compared to just three from Utah State.

“The guards have got to go help the bigs rebound,” Pearre said. “We can’t just stand and watch. We’ll get that figured out.”

After the 20-point loss at San Diego State and a loss at home to Boise State, the Aggies are now on a two-game winning streak and will have eight days to rest and prepare for San Jose State.

“After (the San Diego State) game, we knew that wasn’t us,” Pearre said. “We’re trying to get things going again, practicing hard, get things going the right way and we’re trying to string together a few wins.”

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