Jan. 26, 2004

LOGAN, Utah - Utah State basketball player Nate Harris was named the Big West Conference Player of the Week for the second week in a row as well as the Utah State Athlete of the Week for his performance in USU's two road victories on Thursday and Saturday.

The conference award is selected by the league media relations directors, while the USU honor is voted on by a state-wide media panel.

Harris moved into a starting role in place of the injured Spencer Nelson last week and averaged 23.5 points and 7.5 rebounds while shooting 76.0 percent from the field to lead USU to road wins at Cal State Fullerton (57-49) and UC Riverside (62-58).

Against CSF he scored a career-high 22 points and then bettered that with 25 points against UCR. On the year, the 6-7, sophomore is second on the team in scoring at 11.7 and second in rebounding at 5.8. He leads the Big West in field goal percentage at 70.0 percent and is just three field goals made shy of qualifying for the NCAA statistics, where he would lead the nation in accuracy.

Harris is also seventh in the league in blocks with 0.88 and eighth in rebounding.

Harris, who won the league honor last week coming off the bench, made it three straight Aggie Big West Player of the Week winners as Nelson earned the honor on Jan. 12.

USU, which has improved to 15-1 overall and 7-0 in Big West play, hosts UC Irvine on Thursday at 8:05 p.m. The game time has been moved to accommodate KJZZ-TV. Saturday's home game against Long Beach State will tip off at 7:05 p.m.

Nominations For The USU Athlete of the Week Included:

Women's Basketball - Ali Aird... Sophomore center Ali Aird averaged 22 points and 10.5 rebounds in USU's two losses last week to Cal State Fullerton (69-68) and UC Riverside (89-62). Aird recorded her third-consecutive double-double of the season with 18 points and 13 rebounds against Fullerton Thursday. She then narrowly missed her fourth-straight double-double against UC Riverside Saturday as she equaled her career-high with 26 points to go along with eight rebounds. For the week, Aird shot 63 percent from the field and 78 percent from the free-throw line.

Gymnastics - Alex Martin... The freshman tied for first on the bars with a 9.900 and placed fifth in the all-around with a 38.750 score as USU finished third at a four-team meet at California.

Men's Tennis - Jason Trask... USU's number four player recorded USU's lone singles win in two matches last week. He defeated Denver's Urban Ljubic 6-3, 6-2. The day before he had lost 6-3, 7-5 to BYU's Tim Bradshaw.

Men's Track - Ryan Bruhn... Won the weight throw with the second-best performance in USU history at the Air Force Invitational. His throw of 63 feet and 11 inches was the second-best by an Aggie behind former All-American James Parker.

Women's Track - Amy Eagan... The freshman won the 800-meters at the Air Force Invitational with a time of 2:19.05. USU's women finished fifth at the meet.