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Logan • Lost in the hype of Deonte Burton, who scored 25 points in Nevada's 78-71 win over Utah State on Saturday night, was Utah State's Brockeith Pane, who may have snapped out of a season-long funk.
Pane, Utah State's senior point guard who was great as a junior, has been only so-so this year, but played his best game so far this season, scoring 21 points, handing out six assists and grabbing five rebounds.
He went at Burton, Nevada's star sophomore guard. Burton came back at him. The result was an almost classic matchup between the two best point guards in the Western Athletic Conference, each one-upping the other when he had the ball.
"Brockeith was very good tonight," Aggies head coach Stew Morrill said. "It was good to see him have a game like this."
Pane has had his issues this year. He was chided earlier in the season by the USU coaching staff for shooting too much. He then went through a period of games where he was too deferential. And his turnovers have been a consistent problem.
Against Nevada, however, Pane found the balance that he and the coaches have been looking for. He was aggressive in transition, he made all eight of his free-throws and he made a trio of three-pointers. With his scoring, he set up his teammates for easy baskets. He kept his turnovers to a minimum, and he kept Utah State in the game, as Nevada threatened to open up huge leads in both halves.
"I thought we all played well," Pane said. "But we didn't play well enough. Burton was great, I have to take my hat off to that guy. He hit tough shots, and I tried to play him tough on defense and get a hand in his face."
Twitter: @tonyaggieville