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Logan • It has hardly been a month since Utah State basketball was headed towards its worst season since the turn of the century.

A losing season seemed inevitable following a disheartening defeat at the hands of UC-Santa Barbara. Surely, the year was going to end with merely a whimper as Stew Morrill looked towards the 2012-13 season to pick up the pieces.

But with Wednesday night's 77-69 win over Loyola Marymount in a CollegeInsider.com Tournament quarterfinal, the outlook has changed completely. In front of 5,546 at the Spectrum, Utah State emerged a victor in one of the most physical games of the season.

With that win, the Aggies have 20 victories for a 13th consecutive year. With that win, Utah State owns victories in six of its last seven games. Suddenly, USU looks like the old Aggies, tough on both ends of the floor and lethal from the perimeter. Suddenly, the season looks like a success.

"I'm too tired to expound," Utah State head coach Stew Morrill said. "It was a feisty game. There were a lot of scrappy plays, and I thought that we played hard. I'm just really proud of this team. They could've packed it in and finished 14-18. But this is a team of fighters, and we've really fought hard down the stretch."

In a physical, emotional and at times contentious battle, the Aggies led by as much as 16 points in the second-half, before having to fend off a furious Lions rally at the end. The emotion almost boiled over with three minutes remaining, as Preston Medlin got tangled with LMU guard Jarred DuBois, causing both benches to temporarily clear.

The Lions bench received two technical fouls as a result of the scrum, Brockeith Pane made four free-throws and a close game turned into a rout.

"It was fun," Aggie center Morgan Grim said. "It was sort of like a backyard brawl out there."

Medlin, the star sophomore, scored a game-high 26 points in the win. Pane had 17 points and four assists, and Grim scored 16 to go along with eight rebounds.

Utah State has now won three consecutive postseason games for the first time in school history. The Aggies will continue their run on Sunday afternoon when they host Oakland (Mich.) at the Spectrum. —

Utah State 77, Loyola Marymount 69

• USU advances to the semifinals of the CIT Tournament.

• Utah State wins for the sixth time in seven games.

• The Aggies lead by as much as 16 points in the second half.