LOGAN -- Coming out of the inbounds play, Hawaii's Zane Johnson promptly smacked Utah State point guard Brockeith Pane into the press row, causing a replay TV to take a fall and Pane to have a closer-than-anticipated meeting with the advisor of the Utah State University newspaper.
For guard Preston Medlin, it didn't matter. After all, his team's two-game losing streak, halted with a 77-72 win over Hawaii Thursday night, hurt a lot more than any pain inflicted by the Warriors.
"They're definitely as physical as anybody we've played this season," said Medlin, who led all scorers with 25 points on 13 of 14 shooting from the free-throw line. "We expected that all week. They are pretty tall and pretty wide."
Johnson's shove wasn't the only display of hostile play from the Warriors. A technical foul from forward Joston Thomas late in the first half and center Vander Joaquim's brief midcourt tussle with USU forward Morgan Grim were among the deeds done by the Warriors. But the Aggies did enough for their 11th win of the season as they avoided a losing record, which would have been the first for the program since it lost 70-51 at UC-Irvine Nov. 17, 2007.
"We needed this win in the worst way," said USU coach Stew Morrill. "We scrapped and clawed and hung in there."
Morrill added that fans were upset with some of his rotation moves, including one late in the game when he kept freshman Ben Clifford on the floor instead of following his usual rotation in subbing junior Kyisean Reed, only because of "how the team is right now."
"Kyisean had a fine game, but Clifford was scoring for us," Morrill said of the forward, who scored 11 points. "We knew going in that we were going to have to respond because Hawaii scares you with their athleticism and their size."
Morrill might have been utterly terrified after looking at the rebounding portion of the box score. The Warriors outrebounded USU 48-28, though they did shoot 71 attempts to the field for less than 41 percent, compared with just 49 for the Aggies. USU shot 49 percent from the field while going 79 percent from the free-throw line, while Hawaii went just 11-19 from the charity stripe.
A three-minute mini-run early in the second half provided just enough of a cushion to give the Aggies breathing room late in the game, when the Warriors drew within two possessions four times in the minute-and-a-half.
Two straight layups from Pane followed a 3-pointer at the shot clock buzzer from 12-point scorer Danny Berger, reviving the Spectrum crowd. The buckets fueled a 9-2 run that gave USU a 54-40 lead with 14:02 left in the contest.
Though USU was complimentary of Hawaii's tough play, the same description didn't quite fit the bill with Warrior coach Gib Arnold.
"We played with some effort, but not great, not as great as we have," he said. "We crushed them on the boards, but we just couldn't hit shots. You've got to hit shots against a saggy defense. That's exactly what they were doing. They were doubling, tripling, down on our bigs, as well they should have."
Though Joaquim led Hawaii with 24 points and 14 rebounds, Clifford was quick to look at his own team for their need to put teams away, even though the team is struggling to stay afloat in the middle of the conference.
"We need to capitalize more, especially down the stretch," he said. "I feel like we still let it go a little bit. We had a pretty good cushion, and we let it get close."
* UCLA 76, UTAH 49: At Los Angeles, Joshua Smith scored 14 points, David Wear added 13 and UCLA pulled away with a 20-6 run over both halves to rout Utah Thursday the L.A. Sports Arena.
The victory restored the Bruins (11-9, 4-4 Pac-12) to .500 in league play after they were swept at the Oregon schools last week. Jerime Anderson also had 13 points and Tyler Lamb scored 10.
Chris Hines was the only Utah player in double figures with 13 points. The Utes (5-15, 2-6) have lost five of their last six and dropped to 0-4 on the road in Pac-12 play and 0-6 overall away from home.
It was the first meeting between the schools since the 1983 NCAA tournament, when the Utes won a second-round game.
* SOUTHERN UTAH 57, UMKC 47: At Cedar City, Ray Jones Jr. scored 18 points and Southern Utah held UMKC to 14 second-half points at the Centrum.
Jackson Stevenett added a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Thunderbirds (11-10, 6-5 Summit League), who won for the fourth time in five games. Ramell Taylor and Damon Heuir scored 11 apiece.
Reggie Chamberlain's 17 points paced the Kangaroos (9-14, 3-8), who were swept in the season series. Chamberlain sank four 3-pointers. Kirk Korver added 12 points.
The Thunderbirds trailed 33-20 at intermission but completely shut down the Kangaroos in the second half, holding them to 26 percent shooting and outscoring them 37-14.
* UTAH VALLEY 65, CHICAGO STATE 56: At Orem, Holton Hunsaker scored 18 points and Geddes Robinson had 10 points and 16 rebounds as Utah Valley rallied to defeat Chicago State at the UCCU Center.
Isiah Williams added 13 points and Keith Thompson scored 12 for the Wolverines (12-10, 2-0 Great West), who trailed by eight late in the first half but were only down 34-31 at intermission. Utah Valley used a 10-0 run early in the second half to take the lead for good.
Jeremy Robinson had 18 points and 13 rebounds for the Cougars (2-18, 1-2). Ardarius Simmons made 5 of 6 3-point attempts and also finished with 18 points for Chicago State, while Clarke Rosenberg added 12 points. The Cougars are winless in 14 road games this season.
West
* MONTANA 74, EASTERN WASHINGTON 60: At Cheney, Wash., Art Steward had 19 points as Montana won for the ninth time in its last 10 games, beating Eastern Washington.
Kareem Jamar had 15 points for the Grizzlies (14-6 overall, 7-1 Big Sky). Collin Chiverton scored 22 points for the Eagles (3-5, 9-12), who lost their fourth straight.
* NEVADA 68, NEW MEXICO STATE 60: At Las Cruces, N.M., Deonte Burton scored 17 points and Nevada won its 14th straight game with a victory over New Mexico State.
Dario Hunt added 15 points and eight rebounds for the Wolf Pack (17-3, 6-0 Western Athletic), who shot 57 percent from the field and were 7 for 17 from 3-point range. Olek Czyz and Malik Story scored 14 points each.
Hernst Laroche led New Mexico State (14-7, 4-2) with 21 points. Wendell McKines added 15 points and eight rebounds.
Top 25
* NO. 7 NORTH CAROLINA 74, NORTH CAROLINA STATE 55: At Chapel Hill, N.C., yler Zeller had 21 points and a career-best 17 rebounds to help No. 7 North Carolina beat North Carolina State.
Reggie Bullock added 11 points in his first career start for the Tar Heels (17-3, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), who won their 11th straight against their longtime rivals.
Scott Wood scored 11 points to lead the Wolfpack (15-6, 4-2).
* NO. 21 SAINT MARY'S 68, LOYOLA MARYMOUNT 60: At Los Angeles, Stephen Holt scored 19 points to lead No. 21 Saint Mary's over Loyola Marymount.
The win was the 11th straight for the Gaels (20-2, 9-0 West Coast Conference) over Loyola, dating to 2005-06. The Gaels have won 20 games for the eighth time in school history and six of those seasons have been with coach Randy Bennett.
Drew Viney had 18 points for the Lions (12-9, 5-3), who led by seven points before managing just one field goal over the final 5:10 of the first half.
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