After beating UC Irvine 74-62 — in a game in which the Aggies shot 62.5 percent from the floor, 47.4 percent from the 3-point line, outrebounded the Anteaters 32-23 and had 23 assists — USU coach Stew Morrill was one grumpy man.

"They did not come with enough fire tonight and that is not acceptable and it never will be," Morrill said. "We stunk."

Perhaps in Morrill's eyes. But to the raucous crowd of 7,438 in the Spectrum, the 5-0 Aggies looked just fine.

Morrill, of course, is the ultimate judge of USU's performance and he was far from pleased after the 0-6 Anteaters came out with a prefect game plan to limit the hot-shooting inside tandem of Gary Wilkinson and Tai Wesley.

By double and triple-teaming Utah State's big men, UC Irvine disrupted the Aggies' flow and built a lead that grew to 17-10 five minutes into the game before USU sprung to life.

Tyler Newbold, USU's sophomore swingman, recognized the problem and went to work.

"I knew if they were going to do that," Newbold said, "I needed to punish them because I was going to be open."

Newbold scored a career high 21 points and — much like his post-playing partners — had a phenomenal shooting night. The 6-foot-4 swingman from Payson shot only 11 times and made eight. He hit 3-of-4 3-point attempts and grabbed seven rebounds and dished out five assists in the process.

He was joined by true freshman Deremy Geiger in sending the Anteaters home winless so far this season.

"We had a couple of guys save the bacon," Morrill said. "Deremy Geiger came off the bench and Tyler Newbold had a huge night, thank goodness.