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Show 10 U T A S T A T E S M A N MONDAY, JAN, 24,2005 Contact; Take Note: 797-1761 sports@statesman.usu.eddi Men's tennis takes on Utah Monday at 5 p.m. in Salt Lake. .-.v—-Jflli BYU hockey player dies PROVO (AP) - A Brigham Young University student died after being struck in the chest with a puck while playing on his club team. Jaxon Logan, an 18-yeaxold freshman from Palmer, Alaska, was struck in the chest Friday night while blocking a slap shot against a club teamfromthe University of Northern Colorado. The shot caused ' Logan's heart to stop and he died, according to the team's web site. Logan played for the Provo IceCats, a club team that included students but was not affiliated with the university, BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said. But because Logan was a student, BYU was offering crisis counseling to Logan's teammates, Jenkins said. Robinson honored at team banquet BY UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Athletics Media Relations John Zs\ray/jzsiray@cc.usu.edu UTAH STATE'S JASON WILLIAMS looks for someone to pass to while being guarded by a UC Riverside player. Utah State won the game 77-52 Saturday night in the Spectrum. Ags top Highlanders Defensive effort stifles UCR Big West Standings Team Pacific CS Northridge Idaho Utah State UC Santa Barbara UC Irvine CS Fullerton UC Riverside Cal Poly Long Beach State W L BY KEVIN NIELSEN Staff Writer 9 0 7 2 5 2 4 3 4 4 3 4 3 4 2 5 1 7 0 7 John Zsir'ayy'jzsiray@cc.usu.edu SPENCER NELSON is going for a layup Saturday night in the Spectrum. The Aggies defeated UC Riverside 7752 to improve to 4-3 in conference. In its last game at home before a long road swing the Utah State basketball team played well defensively in its 77-52 win over UC Riverside Saturday. The Aggies had a season high 11 steals en route to forcing 20 Riverside turnovers. Utah State head coach Stew Morrill said a combination of good defense and being worn out from their road trip kept the Highlanders shooting 28 percent from the field. David Pak started the game with a hot hand making the Aggies first three shots, the last of which was part of one of the three Aggie runs of five or more points in the first half. The runs of five, seven and 11 points helped Utah State take a 13-point lead into halftime. The Aggie press gave the Highlanders problems early as Utah State forced a backcourt violation and got a couple easy baskets from steals to help build its lead. Jason Williams started for the first time this season. He finished the game with nine points, two steals and a block The Aggies turned the ball over only four times in the second half and Morrill said the Aggies had "spurts of good defense." "In the first half, even though we were ahead by 12 or 13, we were sloppy," Spencer Nelson said. "We changed things in the second half. We did not turn the ball over as much and moved the ball a lot better which set us up for better shots." Nelson scored 17 points, grabbed seven rebounds and had six assists to lead the Aggies in the scoring column. Jaycee Carroll put up 11 points for the Ags, including his first dunk of the season. The dunk STIR E See Page 7 7 Women hoopsters win in overtime BY ANDREA EDMUNDS Assistant Sports Editor After a disappointing loss to the last team in the Big West Conference, the Utah State women's basketball team rebounded with a 70-63 overtime win over UC Riverside Saturday night in California. "That was the best win of our program's history," head coach Raegah Pebley said. "Not so much because Riverside is so good, but just because of . the situation and that it was an overtime game. We just really had to work for everything, and our kids did." The Aggies trailed for most of the first half and in the beginning of the second. A layup from Taylor Richards with a little more than 16 minutes left gave the Aggies their first lead since early in the game. Richards continued to spark the offense and led the way for the Aggies with 18 points. In the loss to Cal State Fullerton, USU's three leading scorers combined for 12 points. But against UCR Brittany IVessler, Ali Aird and Richards combined for 37 points. Aird had 11 points while TVessler, the leading scorer for Utah State, didn't score until late in the second half. She finished the night with eight points. The Ags and the Highlanders traded the lead for most of the second half, with the Ags leading by as much as eight with eight minutes left to play in the game. Foul trouble in the second half gave the Highlanders free throws and the opportunity to cut the Aggie lead. In the second half the Aggies had 15 fouls called on them to Riversides five. "We've had situations where the refs are obviously not on our side and we've been trained to play through that," Christina Zdenek said. "Tonight the refs were not on our side, Cbut] I think they made up for it a little in overtime." "I told them no matter what, you don't say anything to the officials " Pebley said. "Our focus is to win this game. We're not here to find excuses to lose. We are here to win this game. And we're not going to go in to defend them, we're going in to attack them." With 53 seconds left, a foul from Aird sent Riverside's Kemie Nkele to the line to shoot two. Nkele made both free throws to tie the game at QI _ _ See Page 12 John Zs\ray/jzsiray@cc.usu.edu UTAH STATE'S CAMILLE BROX drives around a Pacific player Jan. 13 in the Spectrum. Wide receiver Kevin Robinson was named Utah State's offensive most valuable player, while lineman Ronald T\ipea was tabbed as the defensive MVP at Utah State's annual postseason . football banquet held 'Saturday night. In all 23 , team awards were handed , out. ' TAipea, a senior from West Valley City, Utah, was also named the team's top defensive lineman as well as earning the Aggie Iron Man Award for his work in the weight room. It marked the third straight year T\ipea was named the team's top ( deffensive lineman. Robinson, who earned freshman All-America honors by a number of publications, picked up the team's special teams MVP honor in addition to his offensive award. Aird earns USU athletic honor Editors note: Aird was named Athlete of the Week for the week of Jan. 18 - 21. BY UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Athletics Media Relations i Ali Aird, a center on the women's basketball team, ' averaged 13.5 points and nine rebounds in Utah State's two1 wins last week against Pacific (67-48) and Cal State Northridge (61-57). For her efforts Aird was named the ; Utah State Athlete of the Week on Wednesday, Jan. 19. A state media panel votes on^ [ the weekly award. Aird, a 6-3 junior from Bountiful, Utah, shot an '! amazing 71.4 percent from •• the floor for the week. She wentfive-of-sevenfor 11 points and six rebounds against Pacific on Thursday ; and against Cal State Northridge on Saturday she again made five-of-seven attempts for a team-high 16 -. points to go along with 12 rebounds. Saturday's doubledouble was her third this season and 10th of her career. Aird is currently eighth in rebounding (6.9) in the Big West Conference and tied for third in blocks (1.36). In 2003 Aird became USU's new single-season field-goal percentage leader with a 597 mark that also led the Big West. |