By Doug Layne

The University of Idaho became the latest to suffer at the hands of the Utah State Aggies, who exended the nation's longest winning streak to 15 games and improved their record to 24-5 Thursday night at the Spectrum. The Aggies, still perfect in conference play at 15-0 after downing the Vandals, 73-52, can sweep the Big West with a victory Saturday night against Boise State.

Last week at New Mexico State, Tony Brown gave NMSU a show by scoring a career best of 27 points. Brown must have felt impressed to put on another show, as he scored 25 points against Idaho, including nailing his first five three-pointers. Brown also had three assists and ended the game shooting 8 for 12 from the floor.

""I came out feeling good. I let everyone else see what happened at New Mexico State," Brown said. "When I am open, I'm going to shoot it."

The Aggies, who are the Big West egular season champs, never looked back after they got off to a quick start by going on a 10-2 run. Bernard Rock, who scored six points on the night, gave the Aggies their biggest lead of the first half when he nailed a jumper with just seconds left in the first half to put the Aggies up by a dozen.

In the first half of play USU went 13 for 25, shooting 52 percent. The Vandals, on the other hand, struggled and went 6 for 27, shooting 22 percent.

In the second half the Aggies saw their lead cut to nine, but that was the closest the Vandals ever came back. The Aggies started to pull away for good in the second half when Dimitri Jorssen dunked the ball as he started the Aggies on a 25-11 run. Curtis Bobb came off the bench at the end of the game to give the Aggies their biggest lead on the night when he nailed a three-pointer with just under two minutes to go.

The 21-point margin of victory is the biggest since beating Irvine, 81-46, in January. The Aggies also limited the Vandals to 17-of-54 shooting from the floor, for 32 percent on the night. On the other hand, the Aggies shot 27 for 49

"We went out and played like champions tonight!" Brad Wilden told a reporter after the game.

The Aggies will finish off the season Saturday against rival Boise State in the Spectrum and try to become one of the only few teams to go undefeated in conference play.

"It's a incredible thing we are shooting for," Coach Stew Morrill said.

It has been nearly 10 years since a team has gone undefeated in conference play. Only two other coaches have ever had a perfect season in the Big West. Jerry Tarkanian did it five times, three times with UNLV and twice with Long Beach State. Lute Olsen did it once as well when he was the coach of Long Beach in 1973-74.

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