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Date Posted: 09:28:32 03/01/02 Fri
Author: Jon Ralston
Subject: Herald Journal Article
In reply to: Jon Ralston 's message, "Mike Hahn Article" on 07:36:52 02/28/02 Thu

Ags in position to win conference


Utah ST. takes on rival Pacific tonight

02/28/02
Gregg Hardy
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Photo by Eli Lucero/HJNewsSTOCKTON, Calif. — Physical play is a given whenever the Utah State Aggies and Pacific Tigers get together.

And in this heated rivalry, it could even get a little bloody.

That was the case last season when the Aggies visited Pacific's Spanos Center. Although they left the building with a 62-51 victory, the Aggies, specifically guard Tony Brown, did not leave unscathed. Brown took an inadvertent shot to the eye by teammate Shawn Daniels, leaving a sizable cut in its wake.

"It's always been a dogfight whenever we've gone down there," said senior Brennan Ray, whose Aggies meet the Tigers tonight at 8:05 (MST) in the Spanos Center. "They're all physical. Tony got bloodied last year — I think that was Shawn's fault. Nonetheless, there was blood spilled.

"We're anticipating a real physical battle. That's just the way the games between us and Pacific have always been. ... Hopefully, we'll be ready for the challenge."

The Aggies (13-3 Big West, 21-4 overall) can ill afford to get caught up in a pier-6 brawl, however, with a chance to win the conference championship firmly in their grasp.

A win and a UC Irvine loss at Long Beach State tonight will give Utah State its second league title in three years. Even if UC Irvine wins, the Aggies can still win the crown by beating the Tigers (9-7, 17-9) and then winning their season finale at Cal State Northridge on Saturday.

Utah State has won the last six meetings with the Tigers and eight of the last nine, including an 81-71 victory Dec. 22 in Logan.

Aggie head coach Stew Morrill says the Tigers are sick and tired of losing to his team.

"Pacific will be as ready as they've been for anybody all year long," Morrill said. "They've about had it with us. We've been very fortunate to beat them a few times in a row.

"We are like the dreaded plague to them. They want a piece of us bad."

Tonight's matchup pits the Big West's top offense in Pacific against its best defense in Utah State. The Tigers are scoring an average of 71 points per game, while the Aggies are holding opponents to 57.6 points per contest.

Pacific has taken and made the most 3-pointers of any team in the league. Led by David Bunts and his 44.8 percentage from beyond the arc, the Tigers have made 203 out of 541 attempts from downtown, a 37.5 percent clip.

In their last meeting against Utah State, the Tigers went 6-of-19 from 3-point range. Morrill said the strategy then was to defend the perimeter and single-cover Pacific's post players.

"We felt like they had so many good things going on (around) the perimeter that we wanted to get up and get after their perimeter guys, and we didn't double the posts much," Morrill said. "But we also shot 60 percent, and I don't know if we can count on that. So what I prefer is that we defend the perimeter as well as we did and defend the post better."

Brown, who is averaging 15.4 points per game, is coming off a three-game homestand that saw him score a combined 17 points, although he did record 23 assists. He had 20 points, three assists and four steals in the last meeting with Pacific.

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