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Las Vegas • In advance of last year's loss to Wyoming in the Mountain West basketball tournament, Utah State's Stew Morrill received two tickets to the Bahamas as a retirement gift from the conference's other coaches.
In Wednesday's case, USU coach Tim Duryea just wanted another night's stay in Las Vegas.
The Aggies came through for their first-year coach. After all of his team's misadventures with inconsistent play and blown leads this season, Duryea needed this 88-70 victory over Wyoming in a first-round game at the Thomas & Mack Center.
As of Thursday afternoon, the Aggies may lament how losing their last regular-season game knocked them down to the No. 9 seed, meaning they'll meet MW champion San Diego State in the quarterfinals. But that's a problem for another day. Duryea should be allowed to feel good about USU's second win in this tournament in three years of conference membership.
In 2014, the Aggies came from 11 points behind in the last three minutes to beat Colorado State. This game's trend was totally different, which means only that a loss would have been devastating. But after having their 25-point lead cut to seven in a span of about 17 minutes, the Aggies responded well.
"I really saw no signs of panic whatsoever," Duryea said.
"I just couldn't let our team lose this game," said USU forward Jalen Moore. "We've been in too many games like this where we had the lead and at the end we ended up losing. I couldn't let that happen again."
USU's strong finish in the face of the Cowboys' second-half threat rewarded a couple of moves Duryea made at the start. He inserted point guard Shane Rector into the lineup, hoping to slow down Wyoming star Josh Adams, and the switch worked wonderfully. So did Duryea's choice to hold a shootaround at 7:30 a.m. local time, the team's available time before the late-morning tipoff.
Those factors partly explain how the Aggies made 17 of their first 25 shots and built a 41-16 lead. USU followers undoubtedly were spooked by that success, with the Aggies having lost an 18-point lead Saturday at home against Fresno State.
Sure enough, Wyoming rallied. The Cowboys scored 10 straight points, although USU responded well enough to take a 47-30 halftime lead. Wyoming kept coming in the second half, getting within 63-56 with nearly 10 minutes left.
That's when Moore delivered a rebound basket and Rector hit a 3-pointer, the biggest shot of his 24-point game. Earlier, Moore had hit a jump shot and a 3-pointer after the Cowboys cut the lead to eight.
USU lacks a go-to offensive player, but Moore sure fit that description. "That is the one thing we've been missing all year long in the league," said Duryea, who liked seeing "a really calm look in his eye."
So the Aggies (16-14) justified the trip to Las Vegas and earned a shot at the No. 1-seeded Aztecs. This may not be the best time to mention that after the emotional win over Colorado State in 2014, USU lost 73-39 to San Diego State in the quarterfinals.
Thursday's game should not resemble that one, though. The Aggies have been competitive in two losses to SDSU, falling by three points in Logan and briefly leading in the second half in San Diego before losing by 15.
"As a group," Rector said, "we feel that we can play with them. And this is a tournament. Anyone can win one game."
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