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Show Still in the hunt for No. 1 Towc/zBase A win Saturday at Idaho gives the Aggies No. 1 seed for tourney Schedules Men's Basketball SATURDAY MARCH 8 USU @ Idaho, 7 p.m. MARCH 13-15 WAC Tournament at Las Cruces, N.M. 3ySAM BRYNER ;enior writer Utah State played the role )f the spoiler in what the Boise Jtatc University athletics website had phrased the "Game of the Year" Thursday night. The Aggies used a strong first half to propel themselves to an 88-69 win and the inside track to a regular season Western Athletic Conference championship and the No. 1 seed for next week's conference tournament in Las Cruces, N.M. After starting the game with both teams going back and forth, the game was at 10-8 for Utah State. The lead would only grow from there. That's when the Aggies were sparked by a technical foul from head coach Stew Morrill at the 15:47 mark of the first half. "When coach Morrill gets up and gets a T, it pushes up a bit," Aggie senior Stephen DuCharme said in a postgame radio interview. DuCharme scored 20 points off the bench in 31 minutes of play for Utah State (11-4 in Women's Basketball SATURDAY MARCH 8 USU vs. Idaho, 7 p.m. MARCH 11-15 WAC Tournament at Las Cruces, N.M. Gymnastics FRIDAY MARCH 7 USU vs. San Jose State, 6:30 p.m. MONDAY MARCH 10 USU @ BYU, 4 p.m. FRIDAY MARCH 14 USU @ Texas Woman's/Kentucky/ Centenary, 6 p.m. Women's Tennis GameOvet FRIDAY MARCH 7 USU 88 BOISE STATE 69 J See HUNT, page 10 USU vs. Montana, 1 p.m. ABOVE, BOISE STATE'S TYLER TIEDMAN, LEFT, is forced to the floor on a rebound by USU forward Gary Wilkinson, Thursday in Boise, Idaho. Left, Utah State forward Tai Wesley, top, reaches for a pass in the key with Boise State's Reggie Larry. AP photos SUNDAY MARCH 9 USU vs. Portland State, 9 a m Softball SATURDAY MARCH 8 USU @ Colorado State Lady Ags can't hang with Lady Broncos By ERIN WADSWORTH staff writer Utah State dropped another game to Boise State University, 65-57, at the Spectrum Thursday. The Broncos brought physi- cality to the court during the :, first battle of an Aggie twogame home wrap-up. Utah State held off defeat for a while, but stopping unanswered Bronco runs turned out to be more difficult than expected. "I think for 36 minutes of (the) game we played pretty (Doubleheader), 12 p.m. SUNDAY MARCH 9 USU @ Colorado State, 12 p.m. FRIDAY MARCH 14 USU @ Oregon State, (Doubleheader), 3 p.m. USU vs. Boise State, noon SATURDAY MARCH 15 ^ GameQwr USU @ Oregon, (Doubleheader), 1 p.m. BOISE STATE 65 SUNDAY MARCH 16 USU 57 USU @ Washington, well," USO head Coach Raegan Pebley^said. "There (were) six possessions in the second half -wnere we turned the ball over, and that turns into pretty quick -/buckets'forBoise. Itgot.away from us pretty quickly with ~~ • ^ those turnover" Boise State got the shooting started and kept Utah State scoreless until junior center Ndoumbe Diop offered a layup with nearly 13 minutes to play. But in fighting fashion, the Aggies battled back to within two points heading into the ABOVE, USU SENIOR GUARD JAMELAH locker room. Strong defensive strategy was B R O W N shoots over a Boise State defender Thursday night d See LADY, page 10 in the Spectrum. LEFT, Aggie senior guard Taylor Richards defends a Bronco defender. The Aggies lost the game, 6S-S7, their second-straight loss. CAMERON PETERSON photos There won't be much of a Spring reak for the USU gymnastics team. The Aggies host the No. 35 San Jose ;ate Spartans Friday night at 6:30 and sit the No. 34 BYU Cougars Monday ight. "This is where our conditional level going to kick in," USU head coach ay Corn said. Despite coming off of loss against o. 13 Denver University last Friday, SU committed two season highs in e floor routine and uneven parallel irs. Although the team had great iprovement on bars and floor,-' isence of consistency on the balance :am is downplaying the team's overall am scores, Corn said. "If we were a basketball team, I juld say we are not playing a com- plete game," he said. "Our absence of consistency on beam would be the same as shooting 2.5 percent from the free-throw line." The Spartans are currently leading the Western Athletic Conference with an 11-2 overall record, and recently pulled their biggest upset in the history of their program against Arizona State University, Corn said. "(ASU) seldom lose in the Wells Fargo Arena. It's very uncommon," Corn explained. "San Jose is very good and we have to tie it on tight and challenge these guys." USU's No. 42 spot is certainly reflecting on its ranking and standings in the conference, Corn said. "I believe in this team and I believe that all they have to do is put one meet together and we'llknow how to do it," Corn said. The goal of the team remains to make it into the top 36 in the nation by the time of regionals, he said. Hockey FRIDAY MARCH 7 USU vs. Metro State, 8 p.m. Indoor Track and Field SATURDAY MARCH 8 USU @ Last Chance Meet in Seattle, Wash. Director of Athletics conference BY USU ATHLETICS Utah State University will hold a press conference on Friday, Mar. 7 at 1:30 p.m. regarding its athletics director position. The press conference will be held in the auditorium of the Space Dynamics Laboratory on USU's Innovation Campus, which is located between 400 and 600 East and 1650 North. Busy break for USU gymnastics squad yCANDICESANDNESS .offwriter (Doubleheader}, 12 p.m. USU FRESHMAN GYMNAST JASMINE MINION practices in the HPER Building in February. Minion and the Aggies host the San Jose State Spartans Friday at 6:30 p.m. The Aggies travel to Provo Monday to take on the BYU Cougars. The Aggies are 3-10 on the season. TYLER LARSON photo "(The team) is upbeat and we know we are improving, but there is a sense of urgency (to place in the top 36) and the team knows that," Corn said. Freshman Jasmine Minion, who has been a key performer on the vault and floor exercise this season, said the Aggies will aim for high scores. "With all of us being motivated, it s going to help carry the confidence so we can bust out some nice, high, scores," she said. "We are a little tired, but we are ready for these meets. We are all pretty pumped and, even though we are tired, we have to push through it. We're going to bring out our big skills and we'll be ready to play." Corn said the team's main focus is to stay on the balance beam. "(Staying on beam) is a mental game," he said. " If we do not attack the beam aggressively, it s going to bite us." Although the team is not where they would like to be at this point in the season, the desire to be successful is still there, Corn said. As for the meet in Provo, Corn said the competition will be more mental than physical as the Aggies are 340 overall on the season. -catidice.saniiness@aggiemail.usu.edu Nowitzki out with game suspension DALLAS (AP) —Dirk Nowitzki was suspended without pay for one game by the NBA on Wednesday for his hard foul on Utah's Andrei Kirilenko. Nowitzki will miss the Dallas Mavericks' next game, at home Thursday night against the divisional rival Houston Rockets, who recently passed them in the tight Western Conference standings. |