Aggie women beat Idaho 70-64 for fifth-straight win
Chalk up another win for the Utah State women’s basketball team. After being down by 14 in the first half to the Idaho Vandals, the Aggies stormed back to win 70-64 and push their winning streak to five games.
“It’s exactly what I expect when you play Idaho,” head coach Raegan Pebley said. “It’s just two teams gunning for each other, totally prepared, and in the end it’s the players that get it done. I feel like our team just found a way at the end.”
The Aggies struck first as sophomore Banna Diop used a post move to get free for a lay-up, but the Vandals used several USU turnovers and a quick 7-0 run to give them an early 9-5 lead. Utah State continued to struggle in the early going as Idaho pushed their lead to 10, up 17-7 with just over 12 minutes left in the first half.
“We came out flat,” said Diop, who had 20 of her career-high 22 points in the second half. “We talked about it and came back to win. We just kept believing that we would win and we did.”
After being down 10, the Aggies still couldn’t hit a shot and were held scoreless for almost five minutes and trailed by as many as 14 points. They finally found their rhythm, though, going on a 13-4 run to end the first half. Despite the strong finish USU still ended the first half shooting a terrible 23.3 percent and trailed 24-29. Idaho however, wasn’t much better, shooting 33.3 percent from the field, and both teams combined for 28 turnovers through the first 20 minutes.
“I think we were over-executing in the first half,” Pebley said. “Our girls adapted and really learned a valuable lesson in the first 10 minutes of that first half.”
Whatever Pebley said at halftime must have worked, because the Aggies came out in the second half a different team. Diop and senior Amber White combined to score 11 points in the first four minutes as the Aggies took their first lead since the 16:17 mark in the first half, going up 35-34.
“I think that our chemistry is what allowed that to happen,” said junior Ashlee Brown, playing in her first game back from an ankle injury. “That’s something that we thrive on. Our chemistry is so good.”
After USU took the lead, Idaho came right back with a quick 6-0 run, and for the next several minutes the action went back and forth as the Aggies tried to hang on after their furious comeback. Diop was key in much of the Aggies success, dominating down low and even hitting two 3-pointers, one of which capped off a five-point spurt and got the Aggies back within three with nine minutes left to play.
“She was huge,” Brown said of Diop’s performance. “We needed her to come in and dominate inside and she definitely picked up the slack.”
The Aggies continued to fight and with less than a minute to go and the game tied at 64, Diop hit an easy lay-up off a beautiful pass from Brown that put the Aggies up by two. Good defense and clutch free throw shooting down the stretch took care of the rest as the Aggies notched the six point win. For the game, the Aggies forced 28 turnovers and also outscored the Vandal’s bench 27-0.
“We just worked hard,” Brown said. “It’s difficult always coming from behind, it’s always better to be up, but we just have this spirit and team chemistry that’s so hard to explain.”
With the win, the Aggies move to 7-3 in WAC play and have the opportunity to move into a tie for second place in the conference as they play Fresno State this weekend.
“It’s a game where we are going to have to play so well,” Pebley said. “They’re just a great team and they’re as seasoned as anybody in our league. But it’s a game where the pressure, I believe, is on Fresno and not on us. We just need to go out and play hard and let it all loose.”
– mark.israelsen@aggiemail.usu.edu