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LOGAN, Utah - Jaycee Carroll scored a Dee Glen Smith Spectrum record 44 points to lead Utah State to a 75-63 win against New Mexico State here Monday night.
Carroll, also established a school record for single-game free throw percentage by hitting all 15 of his attempts. The junior guard canned 12 of 16 field goal attempts, including five of seven threes en route to the seventh-best single-game scoring effort in school history.
Carroll, also added a season-high 10 rebounds, one shy of his career high. His point total surpassed his previous career best of 32 at New Mexico State last season.
Utah State improved to 17-7 overall and 6-4 in the Western Athletic Conference, while New Mexico State suffered just its fifth overall loss and second league defeat in falling to 18-5 and 8-2.
Chaz Spicer scored 13 points for USU, whose next leading scorer was Kris Clark, who had seven points as well as seven assists. NMSU was led by former Utah Ute Justin Hawkins, who scored 18. Elijah Ingram added 12 points, all on three-point shots.
Carroll came out hot at the beginning of each half. He scored USU's first eight points of the game as the Aggies jumped out to an 8-5 advantage before pushing it to 12-5.
Carroll scored the first seven points of the second half as part of an 11-0 run which gave USU a 41-30 lead.
USU took command in the second half of the game, holding a double-digit lead most of the way. NMSU cut the margin to 56-50 at the 8:12 mark, but would not get closer the rest of the way.
USU limited the league's highest scoring team to 18 points below its average of 81.4 points per game.
After shooting just 41 percent in the first half, USU hit 50 percent of its shots in the second half to finish at 45.7 percent. USU enjoyed a huge advantage at the free throw line, making 28 of 31 attempts, while New Mexico State was just 10 of 18. USU also out-rebounded the visitors 36-24 en route to the victory.
USU extended its home court winning streak to 13 consecutive games and is now 11-2 at home against WAC teams since joining the league last year.
Utah State will play at Idaho on Saturday as part of a doubleheader with the Idaho and Utah State women. The women's game will tipoff at 6:30 p.m. mountain time, with the men slated for 8:30 p.m. USU's next home game will be Feb. 14 against Hawai'i at 7:05 p.m.
