Show V I Vi j ' t Utah Jazz surging 14 14 Parker is All-Ameri- u— The Herald Journal Logan Utah Sunday March 12 2000 i iH-- J L TQIMHAUEUT 2QGQ 2000 TQUnilAMEIlT i With the streak and a NCAA bid on the line it was the : r v & AP photo Bernard Rock kisses theBig West trophy as teammate Shawn Daniels signals "No 1" after Utah State defeated New Mexico State 71-6- 6 Big West down Big Dance to go By Jeff Hunter eporte writer week But thainka to their third defeat of the New Mags (22-this season at least die Aggies RENO Nev — Ifs not quite a blackjack but the number 19 know they're in for certain g Despite the crew Morrill's Stew campaign has put together this year there ed with his championship watch 9) record-breakin- was ' sure a winner for the Aggies Saturday night Utah State's 19th straight victory a 6 defeat of New Mexico State was ifs biggest and sweetest of the season inasmuch as it came in the championship game of the Big West Tournament were some doubts about whether the NCAA selection committee would reward a team 71-6- "We're going dancing” declared a jubilant Shawn Daniels in die midst of a joyous celebration rtf players fans and coaches on the floor of the Lawlor Events Center "Nobody thought we'd do good in league this year but we went out and beat everybody in our league and went undefeated Now we're going dancing" Utah State (28-will find out this afternoon who when and where it will play in the NCAA Tournament later this 5) from the Big West with an bid "There's no way they can keep ns out now — we won the championship" USU guard Tony Brown said "Hopefully well get a good seed But we're in for good now" Utah State has now won three more games than any other at-lar- ge : Aggie team in history and extended the school's longest winning streak to a more games The Big West Coach of die Year the half-doz- en Morrill was carried around the court by USU fans after the game and greeted with cheers of "Stew! Stew!" when present "Ifs hard to believe" Morrill said "The pressure on these kids for the last month or so has been amazing with trying to keep the winning streak going then trying to go undefeated in league then trying having to start all over again with die tournament not knowing for sure if we'd be in the NCAAs if we lost "We felt like if we got to tonight we were in either way but you never know And we took away all doubt "But for us to stay so resilient of this is and tough through-alhard to imagine I'm just so proud of 'em and tickled for every Aggie fan tonight I don't know what else I can say Fm kind of dumbfounded" Led by center Dimitri w f fes58P l - Jorssen's 15 points all five starters scored in double figures for Utah State Daniels (1 1 ' See AGGIES on Page 19 Mitch MaacvoHarald Journal Utah State's Dkm Bailey drives to the hoop against New Mexico's Eric Charming A BIT OF T0URIIAMEI1T HISTORY USLTs 1079 — L 1988— W 1996 — L 1998— W 2000— W t Pacific 82 Utah State 73 Utah State 86 UC Irvine 79 tVvitv nwtfw Troy Rolle San Jose State 76 Utah State 75 (OT) Utah State 78 Pacific 63 Utah State 71 New Mexico State 66 if wUUk MVPs are a rarity 1998— Marcus Saxon 2000— Shawn Daniels success in the BW tourney is a recent trend t Vt7 SBMSiWieme 0tv I MUM MjMut £IUs6iJ!VU4ilt |