Three Ags say farewell to Spectrum
The show started Saturday night with USU recognizing three seniors to play in their final home game ever at the Spectrum.
After that it was the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters who stole the show by beating the Aggies 71-58.
The first 13 minutes of the game were hard-fought with each team fighting back and forth, basket for basket. Junior forward Jenny Gross scored 12 of her total 14 points during this stretch of the game.
“We were hustling, we were scrappy and we were making the right reads and rebounding,” Gross said.
Senior Brittany Hagan tied game at 23 with a 3-pointer with just under seven minutes left to play in the first half. It would be a while before they scored again. Over the next four minutes, the Lady Techsters went on an 11-0 run.
“They were in the zone defense, and we didn’t get to the foul line,” Aggie Head Coach Raegan Pebley said. “We weren’t getting any boards, we stopped being aggressive and we were a little bit more passive. We weren’t moving the ball fast enough.”
Pebley credited Louisiana Tech’s switch to defense as the primary reason for Tech’s success. She also said it was because of the good play by her team early on that forced the Lady Techsters out of their usual man defense into a zone defense.
“Who would have thought Louisiana Tech would have beat us going with zone?” Pebley said. “I mean that to their credit, because they are so athletic, and to our kids’ credit because they forced Louisiana Tech to play zone.”
With the Aggies trailing 41-28 going into the second half, it was senior forward Brittany Phillips’ turn to carry the team. She scored 13 points in the second half and ended the game with 17 points.
“I struggled a little bit, but in the end I came together,” Phillips said. “Shots just weren’t falling for me, but I decided that I would just keep shooting. I didn’t care because one of them was bound to go in.”
After getting down by as many as 18 points in the second half, the Aggies made a run to cut the lead to nine points with 4:24 left to play. But in the end, the Lady Techsters’ efforts were enough to hold off USU and win by 13 points.
“We were getting good shots; they just weren’t falling,” Gross said. “The effort was there, just no luck getting them in.”
USU will finish the season on the road against Nevada on Thursday and then at Fresno State on Saturday.
Pebley said the team wanted to put this game behind them and finish the season strong.
“(There are) no excuses,” Pebley said. “We can’t feel sorry for ourselves right now. We have a lot still to play for.”
Seniors Camille Brox, Brittany Hagen and Phillips were honored before the game as being the first senior class that has played at USU for a full four years since the women’s basketball program was reinstated in the 2003-04 season.
Pebley had nothing but praise to give about her first group of recruits to come in as freshmen and play four years.
“They had great loyalty to the program,” Pebley said. “I am really proud of all of them. All are graduating, some of them are already getting master’s work done, and Phillips will be done with her master’s this spring. I think they have left a good imprint on our program, and they are leaving it better than when they got here.”
-samabry@cc.usu.edu