Utah State Advances to Championship Game of WAC Tournament Following 58-54 Win Against Upstart San J Add Comment    Mar 12, 2011

Utah State Advances to Championship Game of WAC Tournament Following 58-54 Win Against Upstart San Jose State

LAS VEGAS, Nev. Senior forward Tai Wesley had 14 points and 12 rebounds to lead Utah State to a hard-fought 58-54 win against upstart San Jose State here Friday in the semifinals of the 2011 Western Athletic Conference Tournament.

Utah State, the top seed in the tournament, will play second-seeded Boise State in the championship game after the Broncos defeated third-seeded New Mexico State, 81-63, in Fridays other semifinal.

For Utah State, it will be playing in its third-straight WAC Tournament championship game and its fifth in its six years in the league.  Overall, it is the 10th time in the last 12 years and the 14th time in school history that USU has advanced to its conferences tournament championship, winning seven titles.

Utah State improves to 29-3 with the win and San Jose State ends its season with a 17-15 ledger after defeating Hawaii (75-74) in the first round and Idaho (74-68) in the quarterfinals of the WAC Tournament.  Those 29 wins for USU are the second-most in school history behind the 30 victories posted during the 2008-09 campaign.

Wesley, the WACs Player of the Year, posted his seventh double-double this season and the 16th of his career for Utah State, while fellow senior forward Nate Bendall also had 12 rebounds for his seventh career double-figure rebounding game.  Junior guard Brockeith Pane had a game-high 16 points for the top seed and senior guard Pooh Williams finished with seven points.

Adrian Oliver, the nations third-leading scorer at 24.6 points per game, had 16 points to lead San Jose State as he was 6-of-19 from the field, 3-of-10 from three-point range and 1-of-3 at the free throw line.

Utah State took its largest lead of the game at 44-34 with 14:23 to play following a pair of free throws from Bendall before San Jose State fought back to within one at 50-49 with 7:19 remaining on a layup from Matt Ballard.  USU increased its lead to five at 56-51 with 2:38 to play following a Wesley tip-in.  SJSU then scored the next three points to get back within two and USU missed the front end of two free throws giving the Spartans the ball down two in the waning seconds only to see Oliver miss a deep three-pointer from the top of the key with five seconds to play.  Wesley then made a pair of free throws to make the final score 58-54.

Utah State finished the game with its second-lowest shooting performance of the season at 37.0 percent (20-54).  USU was also just 3-of-14 (.214) from three-point range, but did convert 15-of-21 (.714) free throws.

San Jose State shot just 37.3 percent (19-51), including 26.3 percent from behind the arc (5-19) and 73.3 percent at the charity stripe (11-15).  SJSU did out-rebound USU by one (36-35), but also had two more turnovers in the game (12-10).

Utah State scored the first seven points of the game and San Jose State answered with eight straight points.  USU took its largest lead of the half at 29-24 with 2:15 remaining following a layup from freshman guard James Walker III and went into the locker room up four at 33-29.

-Utah College Sports News staff and wire reports

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Utah College Sports Wire