Aggie women fall apart in second half, lose to Montana
The search for its first regular season win is still on for the Utah State women’s basketball team. The Aggies dropped to 0-3 on the season after losing 65-62 against Montana on Saturday. USU led by 11 at halftime, but struggled to keep Montana off the offensive glass and let the Lady Griz come back and snag a three-point win.
“Rebounding and us not converting from the free throw was why they were able to get back into that game,” USU coach Raegan Pebley said. “They flat outworked us and I don’t ever want to see that out of our team again.”
For most of the game, Utah State had trouble boxing out and oftentimes was outhustled to the ball, which led to a 27-21 rebounding advantage for Montana at halftime, with 14 of those rebounds coming on the offensive end. However, despite the rebounding differential, this game was déjà vu from a week ago. The Aggies played well early on and jumped out to 13-4 lead.
USU held the lead throughout the first half, mainly due to impressive passing and a good first half by sophomore center Banna Diop. USU totaled 13 assists to just 6 by Montana in the first half, and Diop led all scorers at halftime with 14 points to give the Aggies a 35-24 lead.
“Our offense was good,” said Diop, who finished the game with a career-high 17 points. “We all know what our teammates can do and we just give them the ball.”
The second half started, and the momentum of the game began to shift. USU maintained their lead early in the second half, but the Lady Griz kept fighting and started to chip away at the lead. After a 7-0 run, Montana got within one, and the game was on. With nine minutes to go, Montana took their first lead of the game, 47-45, but the Aggies responded as the action went back and forth.
“The momentum shifted to their side in the second half, and that helped them quite a bit,” Pebley said. “We played better defense, but defense isn’t defense if you don’t rebound.”
The Aggies Achilles’ heel this season has definitely been their free-throw shooting, and in Saturday’s game, that was apparent once again. In a tight second half battle where every point was important, the Aggies only shot 9-17 from the charity stripe, and finished the game 13-25, barely over 50 percent.
“We’ve been having that problem a lot,” Diop said. “We need to focus more on our free throws. We have to work on it, because we’ve been missing too many.”
Pebley said she is concerned about her team’s lack of free throw success, not just because they are losing easy points, but because of the way it can change an opponent’s game-plan.
“We got ourselves to the foul line with a lot of those higher percentage shots,” Pebley said. “(But) we need to convert from the free throw line. They’ll stop fouling you if they are getting hurt from the line.”
Despite their rebounding and free throw problems, the Aggies kept themselves in the game thanks in large part to the play of forward Ashlee Brown. Brown scored 12 points in the second half, and finished with the game with an impressive stat line of 16 points, 9 boards, and 6 assists. Utah State’s bench though, was outscored 33-13 by Montana, which ultimately proved too much for the Aggies to overcome.
With 44 seconds to go, Montana had a five-point lead and were able to hold on to the 65-62 victory. Montana hit their free throws down the stretch and it was just enough to fend off the Aggies despite Utah State having several good chances in the last minute.
When asked about what changes they’ll make, the answers were pretty obvious for Pebley. “Continuing to get better defensively, finishing it with rebounds, and not getting outworked to the defensive boards and loose balls.”
The Aggies now turn their focus to in-state rival BYU, who they will play Nov. 23.
– mark.israelsen@aggiemail.usu.edu