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Logan • Utah State point guard Shane Rector was at his best late last season, especially in the Mountain West Conference tournament.
He has picked up where he left off. Rector scored 17 points and tied his career high with seven assists Saturday night, leading Utah State to an 85-51 victory over Idaho State. In front of 8,923 fans at the Spectrum, freshman Koby McEwen finished with 16 points as the Aggies improved to 3-0 with their most impressive performance of the season.
"It was a real good team effort," Rector said. "We came out with a lot of intensity. … Great team effort. Everybody contributed. Everybody did their job," coach Tim Duryea agreed.
"The thing I'm most proud about," he said, "is that's a pretty good Idaho State team and we made it look like they had a bad night."
Regarding Rector's improvement since the end of his up-and-down junior season, Duryea said, "It was tough for him last year. He got mis-labeled a little bit and he started to let that get to him. But when I saw the way Shane worked over the summer, I've seen it a million times. A guy who works that hard going into his senior year is almost always rewarded."
Looking for its 17th straight win in the series against Idaho State, Utah State used a 13-1 run midway through the first half to build a 32-19 lead.
In the opening 1:56 of the second half, the Aggies added to a 40-27 lead with eight points. Rector led the decisive blitz with two steals and back-to-back baskets.
Ethan Telfair led Idaho State with 15 points but had little impact on the outcome.
"Me and him go way back," Rector said. "He's from New York, too, so I've been playing against him since I was eight or nine. It's a friendly rivalry and it's always nice to get the edge in the friendly rivalry."
Duryea noticed.
"Shane took in personally — that he was going to defend Telfair — and I thought he did a good job," he said. "… It was a New York City battle that, in hindsight, was kind of fun to watch."
Twitter: @sluhm -
- Shane Rector scores 17 points, powering Utah State to an 85-51 win over Idaho State.
- Aggie freshman Koby McEwen contributes 16 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
- Utah State owns a 40-27 lead before scoring the first eight points of the second half.