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Show 77 Wednesday, March 1,2006 Take Note: The women's tennis team is hosting Nevada Thursday at 1 p.m. at the Sports Academy. 797-1761 sports@statesman.usu.edu Trying to forget Nevada Do it all BY BRYAN HINTON Assistant Sports Editor Stew Morrill walked into practice Monday and threw the Nevada game tape onto the ground, shattering it into hundreds of pieces. The head coach wanted to make it clear to his players that they needed to move on from last Saturday's 18-point home loss. "We're trying to put our focus on this week, not last Saturday's game," Morrill said. "We need to be upbeat and positive about all the good things that can still ^ — _ _ happen." Morrill • Tip-off is said that loss has Thursday at 7:05 p.m. in the been exagerratSpectrum. ed because had USU won, it would have been tied for first in the conference. "The reality is we split with them," he said. "We won on their court and they won on ours. If you don't add placement with it, the loss is easier to take. It's not like all of a sudden the season is hopeless." The Utah State men's basketball team will try to turn the page this week when it faces the Fresno State Bulldogs Thursday in the Spectrum at 7 p.m. The game will air on KJZZ-TV. USU will try again to win its 20th game of the season for the seventh straight year. It is currently 19-6 overall with a 9-5 record in conference play. Morrill said FSU is very similar to New Mexico State. "Fresno is very, very difficult for us to guard," he said. "They use their penetration to open up 3-point shots. They shoot the RESNO see page 18 The women's track team placed third and the men's team placed fourth in the Western Athletic Conference Indoor Track Championships held Wednesday through Saturday in Nampa, Idaho. In the women's events, Louisiana Tech took first with 131 points and the University of Idaho placed second with 90 points. The Aggie women's team collected a solid 85 points. In the men's events, Boise State University claimed first place with 154 points while the Aggie men's team accumulated 86 points. Gregg Gensel, head coach of the track and field program, said going into the meet Boise State was poised to be a tough contender for the men and Louisiana Tech would be the big competitor for the women's team. "We felt on the men's side we could be anywhere from second to fifth and have a good meet because it was that close," Gensel said. And close it was on both sides, but especially for the women. Gensel said that up to the final two events, the Aggie women's team was in second see page 19 " ] USU second in 3-pointer percentage Athletic Media Relations not to attend Auburn, USU had announced it would be leaving the Big West Conference and move to Durrall Peterson is not in Kansas the Western Athletic Conference. anymore, but unlike Dorothy, he Peterson said although it helped likes where he's at. make his decision, he still probably would have Born in Raleigh, N.C., the attended USU. shooting guard played two years "Of course it's at Hutchison a big jump from "I loved it out here. I'm an Community the Big West emotional player, so the College in the land to the WAC, of Oz fame before but it's still fan base really gets me." transferring to a great proUtah State. \ gram," he % Durrall Peterson said. Peterson said he p>,. Men's Basketball fell in love with the Peterson USU program as said in his soon as he set his first year in eyes on it. the confer"I loved it out here," he said. "I ence, other players and teams loved the atmosphere. I'm an emodon't know him as well which tional player so the fan base really is to his advantage. He said gets me." other teams will always watch Jaycee Carroll because The town of Hutchison is vastly different from Logan, but Peterson said both cities share the same love of basketball. "Hutchison is a real small, older society," he said. "People go there to retire, but they have a real good fan base which has helped them build a good basketball tradition." USU didn't show much interest in Peterson at first, he said, because he was planning to play elsewhere. "I already had a verbal commitment to Auburn," he said. "But I had to come out of that commitment because of a situation there." Once he decided BY BRYAN HINTON Assistant Sports Editor he's such a good shooter. "Not too many players can flat out shoot the ball," he said. "So they go to him and leave me open." Peterson began the season as a starter, but came off the bench'for > PETERSON see page 19 BY UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY ~ - Alhlelic Media Relations Both teams win 7-0 over Mesa State B Y JOEY H I S L O P Staff Writer USU's BRYAN MERCHANT tries to return the ball to a Mesa State player Friday afternoon at the Sports Academy. It was an easy weekend for USU tennis as both the men's and women's teams cruised through their competition Friday and Saturday at the Sports Academy. In Friday's action, the men and women played host to Division-II Mesa State College. Both matches resulted in 7-0 blowouts in which neither the men nor the women dropped a set. "We played well," said Coach Christian Wright. "There were good games and rallies, but we were closing out game points and set points with more consistency. With Friday's win, the Aggie men improve to 6-4 on the season while increasing their spring winning streak to four matches. They also increase their home unbeaten streak to 10 matches, including their 4-0 home record so far this year. The Utah States men's basketball team is second in the nation in three-point field goal percentage according to the latest NCAA statistics released on Tbesday. Utah State is shooting 42.3 percent from threepoint range this year to rank second in the nation, while Southern Utah leads the nation at 42.9 percent. USU is also fourth in the nation in field goal percentage at 50.1 percent trailing Florida (50.8), Duke (50.4), and Belmont (50.3). As a team, Utah State also ranks sixth in the nation in assists per game (18.1), 19th in fewest personal fouls committed per game (15.4), and 30th in scoring margin (+9.0). Individually, sophomore guard Jaycee Carroll ranks third nationally in threepoint shooting at 48.3 percent, and senior forward Nate Harris ranks 12th in the nation in field goal shooting at 61.5 percent. USU to face BYU in football in 2006 Aggies serve up win Tyler Larson/tmlarson@ccusu.edu • TRACK \Sports Notes BY UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY USUtrack team finishes indoor season BY SETH R. HAWKINS Staff Writer Down I Line With Friday's matches being as lopsided as they were, the only thing that seemed noteworthy for the Aggies was the absence of men's team No. 2, senior Joao Pinho. Pinhos absence came as a result of the match being rescheduled. Fridays match was originally scheduled for the previous Wednesday, but had to be rescheduled about a week in advance. Pinho had already made plans to be out of town on Friday, so Wright replaced him in the lineup with junior Dantley Young who usually plays at the No. 4 spot. "If it was a conference match, I probably wouldn't have allowed [Joao] to do that," Wright said, "We wouldVe had to have him here." On Saturday, the women took on the University of WEEP see page 18 An opportunity to renew an in-state rivalry has forced a change in the 2006 Utah State football schedule that was released just last week. A date with Brigham Young University has replaced USU's visit to Oregon on Sept. 23 it was announced by Aggie athletics director Randy Spetman on Monday. The Aggies and Cougars will meet in Provo on the 23rd. The schools have already agreed to a three-game series with games at Provo in 2006 and 2009 and a game at Logan in between in 2008. The two programs will be meeting for the first time since 2002. BYU holds a 4033-3 lead in the series, which dates back to 1922. The teams had met every year from 1946 through 1994 and then played every year except 1995 and 1998 before the series stopped after 2002. 2006 USU football schedule as of Feb. 27 Date Opponent Sept. 2 at Wyoming Sept. 9 at Arkansas Sept. 16 UTAH ; ^ : Sept 23 at BYU '--^Y Sept. 30 IDAHO* Oct. 7 FRESNO STATE* * Oct. 14 at San Jose State* Oct. 21 at Louisiana Tech* Oct. 28 Bye Week Nov. 4 HAWATI* Nov. 11 at Nevada* Nov. 18 at Boise State* Nov. 25 NEW MEXICO STATE* ^i£&Hi * - Western Athletic Conference game |