RENO, Nev. — Gary Wilkinson scored 21 points and Jared Quayle and Tai Wesley had double-doubles as Utah State raced out to an early 21-4 lead then withstood several Nevada rallies to win the Western Athletic Conference tournament championship 72-62 tonight.

Quayle had 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Wesley 14 points and 11 rebounds for the top-seeded Aggies (30-4), who held Nevada scoreless the first 6 1/2 minutes and denied Wolf Pack leading scorer Luke Babbitt a field goal until 16:24 was left in the game. The tourney title assures the WAC's regular season champs their sixth trip to the NCAA tournament in 10 years, but the first since 2006.

Armon Johnson scored 17 of his 20 points in the second half while the freshman Babbitt finished with only eight points — nine below his average — on 3-of-12 shooting from the field for second-seeded Nevada (21-12), which made only two of its first 21 attempts from the field and shot only 30 percent on the game.