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Logan • Pooh Williams and Tyler Newbold are as valuable as it gets to Utah State because of their defensive prowess.
What they don't accomplish much is scoring. At least on a consistent basis. Without it, the Aggies are tough to beat. But when those two knock down shots, it's almost impossible to beat USU.
In Wednesday night's 78-57 win over Western Michigan, on the second day of the World Vision Basketball Invitational, Williams and Newbold were potent on both ends of the floor.
Williams scored a season-high 18 points on a mixture of jumpers and drives to the basket. Newbold chipped in with 12 points and six assists. Both stayed true to form with their lockdown defense as the Aggies easily rolled before 7,975 at the Spectrum.
Utah State will face Troy on Thursday night in the tournament finale.
"It makes us a lot better when we get scoring from our wings," Aggies head coach Stew Morrill said. "We haven't always gotten scoring from them, but tonight they made shots and it really helped us a lot. They were both really good tonight."
USU, slowly, is rounding into the team pundits thought it had the chance to be when the season started. The win over the Broncos is the fifth consecutive victory for Utah State, with the Aggies' last loss coming at Georgetown earlier in the month.
In that time, Utah State has become more consistent, the Aggies have further defined their rotation and they haven't been seriously challenged since playing the Hoyas.
On Wednesday night, Utah State placed four of its starters in double figures. To go with Williams and Newbold, Brockeith Pane scored 14 points and Tai Wesley came up with 13 points, six rebounds and a pair of assists.
"We got a couple of runs and we played good defense in the second half," Williams said. "At the start of the game we felt like we weren't playing as hard as we normally do. We picked it up in the second half and that's what helped us win this game."
Western Michigan made it a point of playing physically against the Aggies. Aside from incurring foul trouble, the ploy worked as Utah State clearly wasn't ready for a team challenging every pass and every cut to the basket.
As a result, the Aggies led by just 34-30 at halftime. The second half was a different story, however, as USU pulled away with good shooting, by scoring in transition, by matching Western Michigan's toughness.
Utah State 78, W. Michigan 57
R Utah State blows out Western Michigan in the second half.
• Four Aggies starters score in double figures.
• USU wins its fifth consecutive game.