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GAME NOTES: One of three teams tied for first place in the Western Athletic Conference standings entering the week, the Utah State Aggies try to improve their position tonight as they host the Idaho Vandals in league action at the D.G. Smith Spectrum in Logan.

On Saturday night, the Aggies reeled in their sixth straight win with a 77-58 defeat of San Jose State at home. The victory pushed the team to 6-2 in conference and that has Utah State tied with both New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech for the top spot in the standings coming into the week.

As for the Vandals, currently just 2-6 in league action, they took a break from their WAC slate over the weekend and dealt with Seattle University on the road, a meeting that led to a narrow 87-85 victory. The victory was the second in a row for the program, but also just the second since beating Hawaii in the conference opener back on January 2nd.

Utah State won the first meeting of the season between these teams back on January 23rd with a 60-48 decision in Moscow, which means the Aggies have now posted 10 straight wins against the Vandals and own an overall mark of 31-12 in the series.

Idaho led by as many as seven points against Seattle over the weekend, but coming down the stretch the Vandals had to hold on for dear life as they squeezed out the two-point win. Part of the problem was that the visiting Vandals suffered an unsightly 24 turnovers, yet the squad shot 58.3 percent from the floor and 8-of-14 behind the three-point line. Steffan Johnson scored 18 points, Luiz Toledo 16, followed by Kashif Watson and Marvin Jefferson with 14 and 13 points, respectively, while the latter added a team-best nine rebounds. Before fouling out Mac Hopson tallied nine points and a game-high 11 assists which was more than the entire Seattle squad. At this point in the season, not only is Hopson the top passer for the Vandals with 94 assists, he is also tops on the scoring list with his 14.7 ppg, followed by Johnson and Watson with 11.7 and 11.9 ppg, respectively. When it comes to conference games, Hopson has upped his output to 17.5 ppg, but the team as a whole has dropped from 72.1 ppg overall to just 66.8 ppg in those eight outings.

Utah State was ahead by only three points at the break against the Spartans the last time out, but in the second half the SJSU offense struggled and the USU offense took over, en route to the 19-point victory. Nate Bendall scored a career-high 20 points for the Aggies, adding a game-high 10 rebounds as well, while Brady Jardine tacked on 17 points and five rebounds in just 21 minutes off the bench, followed by Pooh Williams with 14 points in the victory. The Aggies made their way into the win column even though Tai Wesley and Jared Quayle both finished with a mere six points. After 22 starts Wesley remains the leading scorer for USU with his 13.0 ppg and is also first on the glass with close to seven rebounds per game, while Quayle (12.0 ppg) chips in with 5.6 rpg and is also the top passer with 93 assists. Ball control has been key to the unit's success this season, the squad already having logged 108 more assists than turnovers and watching opposing programs barely average 10 assists per game this season.

Utah State may not have the talent this season that it has in the past, but clearly there's still enough there to give the Aggies the nod over Idaho tonight.