Women’s basketball struggles continue against Gauchos
History repeated Saturday night when Utah State fell to eight-time Big West champion UC Santa Barbara 88-54.
In their Jan. 8 meeting the Ags lost to the Gauchos at home by 31 points and were unable to do anything to stop 6-foot-8 Linsay Taylor, who finished the game with 23 points.
This time it was the same story as Taylor went 11-of-15 from the field and had one three-pointer for 26 points, five rebounds and five blocks in just 24 minutes.
“Taylor just got too good of a position on us,” said Utah State assistant coach Tricia Binford.
Even though the Aggies lost, they played a slightly better game against UCSB than they did against Cal Poly on Thursday.
In what has become their standard, the USU women started the game falling behind early as the Gauchos went on a 14-2 run very early in the half and forced the Aggies to spend the rest of the game trying to dig themselves out.
They had a tough time doing so because the Gauchos shot a blistering 54.7 percent from the field compared to the Aggies 30.9 percent. The lead just kept getting bigger.
To start the second half USU came out slowly and the Gauchos outscored the Aggies 14-3.
“They’re a hard-working team,” said freshman Terrin Johnston. “We were working hard too, but they were the hardest working team I’ve ever seen.”
Both teams had three people in double digits. Christina Zdenek led the Aggies in scoring with 14 points. She was only 3-of-8 from the floor but went 8-of-10 from the line.
Ali Aird had a better showing than she had against Cal Poly and finished the game with 10 points and six rebounds. Brittany Hagen also put 10 points up on the board for the Aggies.
“I thought we played with better intensity tonight,” Binford said. “We were able to get our hands on some of their passes, but it seemed like whenever there was a loose ball they would come up with it. They are a tough team and play well on their home court.”
The Gauchos also had a trio of double-digit scorers. Taylor led all scorers with her 26 points. Mia Fisher and Kate Baumen contributed 13 and 10 points respectively.
UCSB’s leading scorer heading into Saturday night’s matchup, Kristen Mann, was allowed only six points, well below her average of 14 points per game.
During the first half USU went 4-of-9 for 44 percent shooting from behind the arc, but the Ags percentage from downtown dropped to 14.3 during the second half.
Utah State also had better control of the ball, with only 16 turnovers and eight assists Saturday night. Against Cal Poly the Aggies had 29 turnovers and only five assists.
The Aggies will return to the Spectrum next Feb. 12 for the first time in over two weeks, as they take on Cal State Northridge, a team the Ags defeated earlier this season in California.
“Northridge will be coming in pretty fired-up,” Binford said. “Hopefully we can take care of the ball better and can make a statement on our home court. We want to take pride in playing tough at home.”
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu