Idaho 66, San Jose State 63
The Vandals failed to make a field goal in the game’s final five minutes, and despite a sloppy second half, Idaho was able to complete a season sweep of the Spartans, who have lost seven consecutive games. The host Vandals shot lights out from 3-point range in the first half, going 7 of 13 before shooting 2 of 10 from beyond the arc in the second half. The Spartans shot 32 percent from the floor and played their seventh consecutive game without leading scorer James Kinney, who is suspended for a violation of team rules.
Denver 79, Texas State 64
The WAC’s top three teams have four combined losses, and Denver is certainly among that group with a 9-2 conference record. The Pioneers and their Princeton-style offense were effective against the Bobcats, who got another strong bench effort from Joel Wright. Wright scored 33 points and collected 12 rebounds, but Texas State couldn’t protect its home court in the Bobcats’ eighth conference loss. Interestingly enough, Texas State’s only conference wins have come on the road, and the Bobcats won those three in back-to-back-to-back fashion by 11 combined points.
New Mexico State 75, Texas-San Antonio 62
This is an Aggie team that has matured immensely since the start of the season. New Mexico State has won its last five games by at least ten points, and hasn’t been so reliant on Daniel Mullings or Sim Bhullar as of late. That’s not to say, of course, that the duo hasn’t been producing. Bhullar’s stat line in San Antonio: 17 points, 18 rebounds, three assists and five blocks. The Aggies went to their big men often in Saturday’s win as 6-foot-10 Bandja Sy totaled 17 points while 6-foot-9 Renaldo Dixon added another 12. NMSU will still have to wait another seven games for its second shot at undefeated La. Tech.
La. Tech 64, Texas-Arlington 51
Speaking of the Bulldogs, all they know how to do is win, and that may hold true for La. Tech’s next six games, which they’ll be heavily favored in. It could get interesting for the WAC’s southern representative when the Bulldogs meet New Mexico State and Denver in the final two regular season games. For now, though, La. Tech has the conference’s mediocre and bottom-dwelling teams coming up, and the Bulldogs just ran past one of those on Saturday. For La. Tech, Raheem Appleby had 15 points while Codarius Johnson had another 12.
Utah State 68, Seattle U. 46
It was gut check time for Stew Morrill’s Aggies, who might have finally realized that their season will still continue even without leading scorer Preston Medlin and third-leading scorer Kyisean Reed. Utah State hounded Seattle after edging Idaho on Thursday, and the Aggies have put a stamp on fourth place in the WAC, with Denver two games ahead and Texas-Arlington one and a half games behind. The Redhawks suffered their worst scoring outing this season, and Aggie post Jarred Shaw had another big night, scoring 17 points and grabbing seven rebounds.
Theo Lawson can be reached at [email protected]