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Utah State men's basketball coach Tim Duryea and his staff have a tightrope to walk. The offense could definitely benefit from a shot in the arm, at least periodically, but their defense has been particularly inconsistent on the road.

The Aggies (11-15, 5-10 MW) will go looking for their first conference road win of the season at 8 p.m. Wednesday when they take on San Jose State (14-11, 7-7 MW) in the Event Center in San Jose, Calif. The Mountain West foes will meet for the only time during the regular season.

The Aggies would love to snap out of a recent funk that has included losses in four out of the past five games, while San Jose Sate has won five of six and wants to finish the regular season strong and head into the conference tournament on a roll.

The Aggies have scored less than 70 points in three of their past four games, and they've lost all three of those contests, meanwhile, they've also outscored opponents in the paint in each of their past four games. Their post production underscores a need for more scoring punch from the perimeter.

While freshman guard Koby McEwen leads all conference freshmen in scoring (14.4 points per game), and his classmate Sam Merrill leads the conference in assist/turnover ratio (3.0), their efficiency has decreased when facing conference opponents for a second time.

McEwen has shot 46.3 percent (39.3 percent on 3-pointers) from the floor overall this season, but he has averaged 11 points per game and shot 32 percent from the floor (28 percent on 3-pointers) in six games against teams facing him for the second time.

While Merrill's scoring average has increased during conference play (8.7 ppg overall compared to 10.3 ppg in Mountain West play), he has shot 42 percent overall from the floor and 43 percent from 3-point range. In six games against teams having already faced him, Merrill's shooting percentages drop to 33 percent overall and 36 percent from long range.

"We have to do a better job of helping them to get a higher percentage shot," Duryea said of McEwen and Merrill. "One of the reasons why their percentages haven't been good on the road is that teams are taking them away and making a concerted effort to do that. Because of that, the shots they are taking are tough shots, are highly contested shots or shots at the end of the shot clock. They are just not getting a lot of really good looks."

While San Jose State will face the Aggies for the first time this season, it'd be naive to think its coaching staff hasn't examined what conference opponents have done to stifle the Aggies newcomers.

Recently, opponents have dared Aggies power forwards to make jump shots by using the defender assigned to them to clog the lanes and/or double team senior inside-out threat Jalen Moore. The Aggies can counter by going with smaller lineups with Moore playing power forward, but that's where balancing on the tightrope gets treacherous.

"We set a lot of ball screens and spacing is very important and when you have a guy out on the floor that the other team isn't guarding, keeping his defender in the lane, then that makes it harder for your guards," Duryea said. "There is less space and fewer driving lanes and we need to get those four-men to be more effective out on the floor. We have been trying to do that a little bit.

"We are a better defensive and rebounding team when we don't go small, but we are a better offensive team, at times, when we do go small. I would like to try and be the best defensive and rebounding team we can, but still have some effectiveness offensively. That is our challenge."

The Aggies were beat up on the boards by Nevada on Saturday. Nevada grabbed 45 rebounds to their 29, and 20 of Nevada's rebounds came on the offensive glass.

lworthy@sltrib.com Twitter: @LWorthySports