Ag women basketball corral Mustangs
It was a far cry from Saturday’s loss to Pacific, but the Utah State women’s basketball team’s 57-52 win over the Cal Poly Mustangs Thursday night in the Spectrum wasn’t the best game the Aggies have played either.
“I don’t care how we win them,” Utah State Head Coach Raegan Pebley said. “If we win them by one point or if we win them by 20 points. I don’t care how we win them. It is a confidence builder to be able to pull it out in the end, especially when we really didn’t have much of a lead for most of the game.”
The Aggies didn’t see the lead until about five minutes into the second half after a layup from Jessica Freeman put the Aggies up 33-32 over the Mustangs.
For the rest of the half, the lead traded back and forth. Utah State was never down by more than five for the rest of the half. But the Mustangs wouldn’t let the Aggies go up by more than three.
With a little more than one minute left, the Ags tied the game at 52 after a layup from Brittany Tressler. Another layup from Tressler and a free throw from Camille Brox put the Aggies up by three and the win in their hands after Cal Poly missed its final shot.
“It was close, too close,” Taylor Richards said. “We’ve been in a lot of close games so we’re used to closing out in cruch time and defending. We’re pretty confident with that.”
Richards made two free throws in the final seconds to put the Aggies up by five and the win out of reach for the Mustangs.
In the first half, Richards said the Aggies had trouble controlling the ball and executing on offense. Something that could have been left over from the Aggies’ loss just one game before.
“We had to fight for [the win],” Pebley said. “Cal Poly came here to win a basketball game, that was obvious.”
Pebley said during the first half, in which the Aggies shot 37 percent and finished three points behind Cal Poly, the team was fighting itself and not Cal Poly.
“We can’t beat ourselves, we’ve got to make someone else beat us,” she said.
Ali Aird finished the night with 12 points, the only Aggie in double-digits. Jessica Freeman and Brittany Tressler each had nine points. Freeman also pulled down 10 boards and had six blocks.
Cal Poly’s Jessica Eggleston led all scorers with 15 points. She was the only Mustang who had more than 10 points.
Utah State finished the night with 23 turnover, 12 coming in the first half.
“We had a lot of turnovers in both halves,” Pebley said, “but I preferred the second half turnovers because we were trying to create shots and we were attacking. We weren’t waiting for someone to give us a wide open shot. We created shots.”
The Aggies will next face UC Santa Barbara 2 p.m. Saturday in the Spectrum. The last of their four-game home stand.
“We have confidence we can win,” Aird said. “We’re ready for them, bring em on.”
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu
Aggies corral Mustangs