By Dave Archer

January 16, 2007 | No wonder LeBron James is considered one of the best players in the NBA. He's got the right shoes.

It appears that Utah State's Nick Hammer has figured that out, after he scored a career-high 15 points and provided a key spark off the bench for the Aggies in a 74-56 victory over the Idaho Vandals Monday night.

"I changed my shoes," said Hammer, whose night included a 5-for-5 first-half performance from the floor. "I didn't like my old shoes, so I put the LeBron's on."

Coming into the Spectrum to take on conference foe Utah State (13-5, 2-2), Idaho (2-14, 0-4) focused on stopping WAC scoring leader Jaycee Carroll by employing a box-and-one defense to start the game. When Hammer entered the contest early in the first half, however, the Vandals had no idea what hit them.

"We can't let someone come in here and box-and-one Jaycee and get away with it," Hammer said. "Somebody's got to be able to contribute when they want to take (him) out."

Hammer did more than just contribute, as he almost single-handedly led the Aggies on a 14-5 run midway through the first half. Hammer hit four three-pointers during that stretch, turning a 14-13 deficit into a 27-19 lead that the Aggies never relinquished.

"If it wasn't for Nick Hammer, (Idaho) could have been ahead at halftime," head coach Stew Morrill said. "He had the best half of his career as an Aggie, and that was great to see him play that well."

"It felt good to hit a few in a row," Hammer said. "It's been a while since I hit a few in a row."

Hammer's scorching touch from the outside forced the Vandals into abandoning their box-and-one defense, allowing Jaycee Carroll to see a lot more open looks than he was getting to start the game.

"When Nick comes in and hits four threes in a row . . . they can't stay with that defense," Carroll said. "It was good to get out of that and let us run our offense against man-to-man and against some of their zone."

Carroll finished the night with 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting, including 3 of 5 behind the three-point line. Stephen DuCharme also chipped in 11 points for the Aggies, who shot nearly 55 percent from the field as a team.

The Aggies will try to extend its winning streak to four games as they take on Boise State (8-7, 2-2) at home Thursday. Carroll said he feels this game will be different from the last time the two teams met, which saw the Broncos claim a 77-66 win in Boise after jumping out to a 20-4 lead.

"Honestly, I think we'll have a lot more confidence," Carroll said. "Hopefully we can come out and kind of get them on their heels."

Hammer added, "We just can't turn the ball over and let them run on us, they ran us out of the gym up at Boise. Coby Karl pushes the ball real well, so we need to slow them down."

Thursday's game at the Spectrum tips off at 7:05 p.m.

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