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HONOLULU -- Utah State senior guard Jared Quayle scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds to propel the Aggies (23-6, 12-2 WAC) over the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, 61-50, Thursday night in Honolulu.
The Aggies' 13th straight victory gave them their 11th straight season of at least 23 wins. The loss was the Warriors' ninth in a row.
Both teams struggled offensively all night and the Warriors' (2-11, 9-18 WAC) zone defense gave the Aggies problems. However, the Aggies played well enough to come out on top in a gritty road game.
"I thought it was a really ugly basketball game, but we'll take it and get on the flight and get home. They made the game ugly with their zone defense, and I didn't think we played great but we got out of here with a win," Aggie Head Coach Stew Morrill said.
In the first half, the two teams combined for a mere 40 points, the Aggies led 23-17, and the Warriors' leading scorer, Roderick Flemings, was held without a field goal. He would finish the night with 11 points.
In the second half, the Aggies pushed their lead to start the second half on aggressive drives to the hoop by Pooh Williams, who finished with 12 points, and a 3-pointer by Quayle. Flemings finally scored, hitting eight straight points to keep the deficit close. Williams hit a 3-pointer to put the Aggies up by 12 with 13:16 left in the game, and the Aggies hung on to win by 11.
The game was physical all night. In fact, several Aggies found themselves in foul trouble in the first half. Junior forward Nate Bendall got into early foul trouble, but was able to finish out the game. Doug Jardine and Williams both had three fouls at the end and Hawaii's Brandon Adams fouled out in the final minutes of the game.
The Aggies finished the night shooting 44 percent from the floor and 33 percent from the field and limited the Warriors to 41 percent from the floor; however they did hit 50 percent (6-12) of their shots from 3-point range, but hit only 50 percent of their free throws (8-16).
Hiram Thompson led Hawaii with 13 points.
The Aggies will finish the season with two home games before the conference tournament. They face Fresno State on Mar. 1st and tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. at the Spectrum. The Aggies will then face New Mexico State on Mar. 6th and this game could be the showdown for the Western Athletic Conference regular season title.
