USU basketball: Aggies escape island with a win

Utah State hasn't faced much adversity this season. The Aggies are breezing through the Western Athletic Conference and are nationally ranked, heading into the all-important month of February.

USU, however, faced a mountain of issues Saturday at Hawaii. In escaping the island with an 89-84 double-overtime win, the Aggies needed a Brian Green 3-pointer to force the second extra-session.

They were forced to win without a big contribution from Tai Wesley, who ultimately fouled out with 12 points and seven rebounds. And they won despite playing for a second time in three nights, against a team that had a week to prepare for Stew Morrill's crew.

Through it all, No. 25 Utah State defeated the Warriors for the second time this season, getting 22 points from Green, 17 points from Tyler Newbold and 11 points to go along with eight assists from Brockeith Pane.

"We showed that we're a veteran team," Wesley told The Salt Lake Tribune. "We never got down on ourselves, even when it looked like we were in a tough spot. It was a very good win for us. We showed a lot of heart tonight."

As a result, the Aggies stand to move up several spots in the national polls Monday morning, with a number of teams in the Top 25 suffering upset defeats this weekend. Utah State will also learn its BracketBusters destination Monday afternoon in a pairings show to be shown live on ESPNU.

BracketBusters is a three-day event, held Feb. 18-20 this year, that pits NCAA Tournament hopefuls against each other.

Utah State figures to receive a marquee game for its matchup, with St. Mary's and Old Dominion being two possible opponents.

USU has won 15 consecutive games and 23 straight regular season WAC games. The Aggies are 20-2, and have a commanding conference lead at 9-0.

tjones@sltrib.com

Twitter: @tonyaggieville