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Logan • Utah State coach Tim Duryea looked at the box score after the Aggies' 93-84 victory over the New Jersey Institute of Technology on Monday night and smiled.

Why not?

Senior Jalen Moore scored 19 points and freshman Koby McEwen added 18 to lead the Aggies to their second straight win of the young season.

Three other players, including freshman Sam Merrill with 15, reached double figures as USU pulled away from the gritty Highlanders in the final minutes.

"Love balance," Duryea said. "That's Utah State basketball right there. Playing together. Taking what the game gives you and knocking down open shots. We've played that way a long time around here and that's fun to see."

Senior point guard Damon Lynn led NJIT with 34 points. He hit four 3-point shots in the final seven minutes to make things a little uncomfortable for the crowd of 8,584 at the Spectrum.

"Credit to them," said Merrill, who is from Bountiful. "That's a good team. … [But] I thought we did a good job down defensively the stretch. We got stops when we needed to get stops."

Utah State appeared on its way to a cruise-control win after opening a 14-point lead with five minutes left in the first half.

NJIT narrowed the deficit 46-37 at halftime before taking a 59-58 lead on Tim Coleman's 3-pointer with 9:38 remaining on the game.

"I challenged them midway through the second half," Duryea said, referring to his players. "I thought we were on our heels a little bit defensively and I told them the tougher team would win. …

"I thought we were the tougher team the last 10 minutes. We got loose balls. We got on the glass. We got some defections and drove the ball to the basket on offense. We showed some offensive toughness as well."

Utah State regained a 63-62 lead on Shane Rector's straight-away 3-point shot with 8:24 left in the game. From there, the Aggies slowly pulled away with the help of rookies Merrill and McEwen.

Merrill buried a 3-pointer to make it 80-74 with 3:15 to play. Moments later, McEwen scored seven points during a four-possession stretch to give the Aggies a 89-78 lead with one minute left.

"Those two freshmen have great chemistry together," Duryea said. "They do a great job playing off one another — they have since they got here. In practice every day, they give those older guys all they want. They really enjoy playing with each other. The really complement each other very well."

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Storylines

R Jalen Moore scores 19 points to lead Utah State to a 93-84 win over the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

• Freshmen Koby McEwen adds 18 as the Aggies roll to their second victory of the young season.

• Utah State takes the lead for good on Shane Rector's 3-pointer with 8:24 remaining.