Aggie women take low road against Highlanders
They say justice is blind, along with Big West referees. Unfortunately for the Utah State Women’s basketball team, bad and missed calls from the referees weren’t its only problems in its 89-62 loss to UC Riverside Saturday afternoon at the Spectrum.
“We came out exactly like we have the last two games,” said Utah State Head Coach Reagan Pebley. “We were flat. Defensively we were a little better at the beginning of the game, but we were unable to maintain that intensity for the entire 40 minutes.”
Prior to the game’s start, Coach Pebley shuffled the starting lineup allowing Brittany Tressler and Brittany Hagen to start. Terrin Johnston started as well in place of an injured Camille Brox.
“We changed the lineup drastically, trying to light a fire under some people,” Pebley said.
The change in lineup seemed to work for about the first two minutes of the game. USU quickly led 6-2 but the Highlanders went on a 25-7 run and the Aggies never saw the lead again.
UCR’s Crystal Harris nearly outscored the Aggies in the first half all by herself, scoring 21 points in the first half, while the Aggies only had 25. Previously, Harris had only averaged eight points per contest.
“We’re struggling with starting off and being intense,” said Aggie Ali Aird.
Aird carried the Aggies on her back the whole night with a fairly good offensive game. She was the only Aggie player to score in double figures, tallying 26 points, more points than the entire team scored in the first half. She was just shy of her fourth-straight double-double with the eight rebounds she pulled down in 34 minutes of play.
“With Ali getting 26 points, I felt like she could have gotten 40 points,” Pebley said. “If we would have just kept getting her the ball.”
The Highlanders had a quartet of players scoring in double figures, Harris included. With Harris on the bench because of foul trouble, UCR’s leading scorer Casandra Reeves stepped it up in the second half for the Highlanders scoring 15 points.
Harris finished the game with 29 points and Reeves finished the game with 19. Astrid Spegel and Kristen Peters also helped out with 12 and 10 points respectively.
During the first half of play, USU had a terrible game, making only five field goals and shooting only 25 percent from the floor. They managed to stay in the game going 13-of-17 from the line.
The second half wasn’t much better as the Aggies only improved to shooting 35.3 percent from the field. They finished the game at 31.5 percent in one of their lowest shooting games so far this season.
The Highlanders improved to 4-12 overall and 3-4 in league play while USU fell to 2-13 overall and 2-5 in league play.
“We are a great team, although we may not have the record to show it,” Aird said.
The Aggie women head on the road for a four-game road trip to California. The Ags first take on UC Irvine Thursday before going on to games with Cal Poly, UC Santa Barbara and a rematch with Cal State North Ridge.
The Ags are looking to improve on their record before they get back in an effort to secure themselves an invitation to Anaheim for the Big West Tournament March 10-13.
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu
Jessica Freeman has the ball swatted away by a Highlander defender Saturday. (Photo by John Zsiray)