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Daniels is MVP as Aggies defeat Air Force, 59-50 By
Doug Layne
With less than a week before the defending Big West Conference champions play their first conference game of the year, they defeated the Air Force Falcons, 59-50, in the championship game of the annual Gossner Classic on Dec. 30. With the win over the Falcons USU remains perfect at 14-0 in the seven years of the tournament. Leading the way for USU was Shawn Daniels as he scored eight of the Aggies' first 14 points. "He's so solid and stable that he will bounce back," Coach Stew Morrill said of Daniels, who had only seven against Albany in the previous night's Gossner opener. Daniels went on to finish the Air Force game with 17 points and pulled down 12 of the Aggies' 36 rebounds in 31 minutes of playing time. "I had to play with more confidence," Daniels said. "It's good to see him be more aggressive," Morrill said. "He's a talented player." During most of the game, the Falcons controlled the tempo. They held the Aggies to no field goals for more than seven minutes in the first half. During the drought USU went to the charity line four times and made all eight free throws. The drought finally came to an end when Curtis Bobb, who was the second-leading scorer for the Aggies with 10 points, hit a three-pointer from the baseline to give Utah State its biggest lead of the half, 14. In the second half the Ags continued to build their lead and started to pull away from the Falcons when Tony Brown scored three of his nine points when he nailed a three-pointer to give his team a 20-point lead. It looked like the game was all but over as Tomas Vincent hit another three-point shot to give USU its biggest lead of the game at 23 points. "Everybody came out and played hard for 30 minutes," Daniels said. "They switched it up on us and they ran stuff they hadn't run." The Falcons soared right back into the contest as Robert Todd scored 15 out of the Falcons' last 20 points. Todd, who had only three points at the break, would nail five three-pointers from downtown in the second half as the Aggies saw their 23 point lead with less than 10 minutes begin to vanish as the Falcons went on a 20-4 run. But the run would be a little too late and Utah State went on to maintain its lead despite shooting only 30 percent from the field during the contest. Daniels was named the MVP for the second straight year at the Gossner Classic. "Its always nice when you can repeat at something especially the league championship," Daniels said.
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