March 4, 2012

Final Stats | Notes

HONOLULU - Senior forward Morgan Grim scored on a spinning layup with seven seconds to play to lead Utah State to a hard-fought 61-60 come-from-behind Western Athletic Conference road win at Hawai'i late Saturday night to give the Aggies its third-straight victory heading into the league's postseason tournament next week.

Utah State entered the game with a 1-4 record in games decided by three or fewer points and had lost each of its last six games on the season that were decided by seven or fewer points.

Utah State trailed the entire second-half as was down by as many as nine points in the final 20 minutes including at 60-59 following a free throw from Hawaii's Joston Thomas with 37 seconds remaining before Grim converted the winning basket with seven ticks left on the clock. From there, UH's Jeremiah Ostrowski drove the ball down the court but had his pocket picked by Utah State's Brockeith Pane who threw the ball high in the air down to the Aggies end of the court as time expired.

Utah State, who is riding its second-longest winning streak of the year, ends regular season play with a 17-14 record and finishes in fourth-place in the WAC with an 8-6 mark. Hawai'i falls to 15-15 overall and 6-8 in the WAC with the loss as the Rainbow Warriors ended its season on a five-game losing streak.

Pane led Utah State with 20 points as he was 8-of-16 from the field, 1-of-4 from three-point range and 3-of-4 from the free throw line for his fifth 20-point game of the season. Sophomore guard Preston Medlin added 19 points and four assists as he was 5-of-11 from the field, 3-of-8 from three-point range and a perfect 6-for-6 at the free throw line. Grim scored all nine of his points in the second-half to go along with four rebounds and two blocked shots, while junior forward Kyisean Reed tied his career-high with 10 rebounds and added two blocked shots as well. Freshman forward Ben Clifford came off the bench to score four points and grabbed a career-high tying seven rebounds.

Thomas was one of three double-figure scorers for Hawai'i with 19 points, while Ostrowski added 13 points and Zane Johnson finished with 10.

Utah State finished the game shooting 44.0 percent overall (22-50), including just 25.0 percent from three-point range (5-20) and just 46.2 percent at the free throw line (12-26). USU did, however, out-rebound Hawai'i by 10 (37-27) and had four blocks as compared to zero for the Rainbow Warriors. UH shot 43.8 percent for the game (21-48), including 30.0 percent from behind the arc (3-10) and 62.5 percent at the charity stripe (15-24).

Hawai'i jumped out to a quick 6-2 lead before Utah State scored 13 of the next 14 points to take its largest lead of the game at 15-7 with 14:10 to play in the half. USU later led 17-9 before UH scored seven unanswered points to get within one, but the Aggies scored the next four points to lead 21-16. Hawai'i would eventually tie the game at 24-24 and regained the lead at 28-27 with 2:25 to play before scoring the final two points of the half on a Thomas dunk to take a 31-29 lead into intermission.

Hawai'i began the second-half on a 9-2 run to take its largest lead of the game at 40-31 with just two minutes gone. From there, Utah State slowly chipped away at the lead as it got within three at 43-40. UH, however, pushed its lead back to seven and led 55-48 with 5:45 remaining before USU went on a 5-0 run to get within two. The Rainbow Warriors increased its advantage back to four at 57-53 with 2:52 left only to see the Aggies score eight of the final 11 points to notch the 61-60 win. During the final 2:05 of the game, Hawai'i went 1-for-2 at the free throw line on three straight possessions while the Aggies scored on each of its final five possessions making 4-of-5 field goals and scoring nine points.

Utah State will return to action on Thursday, March 8 in the quarterfinals of the WAC Tournament as the Aggies will be the fourth-seed and play fifth-seeded Louisiana Tech (16-15, 6-8) at 9:30 p.m. (MT). USU won both regular season meetings against LTU and is 14-2 all-time against the Bulldogs.