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N. Colorado 73, Utah State 70
Ahead by five points in the game’s final minutes, the Utah State women’s basketball team could taste its first victory of the season against the University of Northern Colorado Golden Bears Dec. 13.
But then the game went into overtime.
The Division II Golden Bears outscored the Aggies 7-to-4 in the extra period, dropping the Aggies’ record to 0-5 with the 73-70 win.
Ali Aird led the Aggies with a career-high 26 points, 19 in the second half, but the team was unable to overcome UNC’s three-point shooting. The Golden Bears were 12-of-39 from behind the arc.
“We figured if we could hit a few threes, then maybe we would be able to knock someone off,” said UNC Head Coach Ron Vlasin.
Amber Elliott scored 24 points for the Golden Bears on 50 percent shooting.
The Aggies committed 28 turnovers in the game, leaving Head Coach Raegan Pebley wanting more offensive execution.
“It’s just a matter of every single possession counts,” Pebley said. “When we are running a play, we need every single person running the play.”
Pebley said the game shouldn’t have even gone into an overtime situation but said she found silver lining on the cloud by getting the team overtime experience at home.
“It’s not high school ball where you can just win with one good player,” Pebley said. “You’ve got to have seven or eight good players and know where your bread and butter is at.”
Utah State 75, UVSC 68
The Aggies’ 75-68 exhibition win against the Utah Valley State College Wolverines Dec. 16 didn’t end up counting in the standings, but it still counted for the Aggies.
“We’re sick of losing,” said Christina Zdenek, who led the Aggies with 20 points against the Wolverines. “We’ve been sick of losing since the first game we lost.”
The win was important for the 0-5 Aggies in that it showed the team they could win.
“The only thing it matters for really is what other opponents think,” said Head Coach Raegan Pebley. “But let them underestimate us.
“Hopefully, this is just breaking down a little bit of a wall.”
Ali Aird and Ashley Anderson both scored 12 and Aird had 10 rebounds.
Perhaps the most important statistic of the game for the Aggies was the lack of turnovers. Averaging 28 turnovers per game through the first five games, the Aggies only committed 11 against UVSC.
“We all wanted to come out and get a win,” said Ashley Anderson.
Anderson played for UVSC last season.
“I wanted to win this one, especially,” she said.
Pebley said Anderson was instrumental in the scouting report, as she knew what the UVSC plays were called.
Anderson faced off against former teammate and high school rival Molly Hillyard in the contest. Hillyard scored six points on 2-of-7 shooting. Anderson attended Mountain Crest High School in Hyrum at the same time Hillyard played basketball for Logan High School.
“I didn’t even think about high school,” Anderson said. “I played with those girls the whole year last year and I knew we could do it.”
Following the win, the Aggies prepared to begin a four-game road trip.
W. Michigan 116, USU 65
Utah State looked for another win as the Aggies went into their game against Western Michigan. However, beating a Top 25 team proved much harder than beating UVSC.
The Broncos overmatched the Aggies in Kalamazoo Dec. 19, winning 116-65.
WMU started the game with an 18-0 run and lead the Aggies 60-32 at the half. USU scored more points in the first half than they had scored in first-half play so far in the season, but it wasn’t enough to stop the Broncos.
Western Michigan shot an incredible 59.1 percent from the field and their defense held the Aggies down to just 22.9 percent.
Although USU had a tough time keeping up with WMU, two Aggies scored season-best points, Christina Zdenek had 19 and Brittany Hagan had 9 points and five rebounds. Only two Aggies made it to double-digits, however, compared to Western Michigan’s quartet. Zdenek’s 19 points led USU in scoring and Ali Aird had 11 points, scoring in double-figures for the fifth straight game.
“I think it was good for our players to play against this caliber of a team,” said Utah State Head Coach Raegan Pebley. “This will hopefully help us see what we need to improve on as we face the top teams in the Big West.”
IP-Fort Wayne 83, USU 74
The Aggies were able to get a few more shots up against IP-Fort Wayne, shooting a season-high 41.8 percent from the field.
But the season-high wasn’t enough to pull out a win on the road, as the Mastodons won 83-74 Dec. 21.
The game was also a milestone for USU because it marked the first time that the Aggies had fewer turnovers and more assists than their opponent, recording 13 turnovers along with eight assists.
Four Aggies scored in double-digits, led by sophomore Ashley Anderson’s 16 points. Sophomore Ali Aird pulled double-digits again for the sixth straight game with her 10 points.
Aggies Jessica Freeman and Christina Zdenek scored in double-digits as well with each putting 12 points on the board.
The first half ended with the Mastadons up 46-27 and shooting 54.3 percent from the floor compared to the Aggies 38.5 percent for the first half. However, the Aggies came back strong in the second half.
Led by Anderson’s 10 second-half points and Virginia Jennings’ nine, the Aggies went on a 31-12 run that ended with Anderson making a three-pointer to tie the game at 66 with 4:49 left in the game. But IPFW scored the next six points, and the Aggies weren’t able to come back.
Weber State 71, Utah State 50
Sophomore Ashley Anderson’s performance against IP-Fort Wayne allowed her, along with freshman Camille Brox, to start for the first time this season against in-state rival Weber State.
The pair helped the Aggies get off to a quick start, leading for much of the first half before Weber pulled away for a 71-50 win Dec. 30.
The Wildcats took over the lead and took control of the game with only a little over five minutes left in the half .
A 17-4 run at the end of the first half put the Aggies down 35-23 when the buzzer sounded. USU had its second-worst shooting percentage against Weber State during the first half of play, shooting only 31.5 percent from the floor. The second half, although their shooting average improved to 45.7 percent, the Aggies were not able to come any closer than 10 points.
An 11-5 scoring run at the end of the game by the Wildcats left USU behind.
Freshman guard Terrin Johnston led the Aggies with a season-high 12 points.
Ali Aird scored in double figures for the seventh straight game, putting away 10 points, eight of which came in the second half.
“We were able to contain their big scorer, but by doing that we let a couple of kids score that usually don’t score at all,” said Utah State Head Coach Raegan Pebley.
Idaho 62, Utah State 51
Utah State had its first halftime lead of the regular season in its Big West conference opener at Idaho, but the Vandals came back to win 62-51 despite having their usual starting point guard on the bench.
Lelani Mitchell, averaging seven assists per game, sat out with a bulging disc in her back, but the Vandals still had Emily Faurholt, leading the nation in scoring average at 25 points per game.
Faurholt scored 21 against the Aggies, along with 12 rebounds and three assists to lead the 9-1 Vandals.
Idaho State only played six players in the game, but go unexpected production from Courtney Goetz. Goetz, averaging one point per game, had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Heather Thoelke also added 10.
The Aggies actually shot 44 percent to the Vandals’ 40 percent, but ISU outrebounded Utah State 40-30.
Idaho State took its first lead at 43-41 and pulled away from the Aggies in the final minutes of the game.
Ali Aird had a team-high 18 points for Utah State, pulling down six rebounds. She also had three blocks and three steals in the game.
Aggie Christina Zdenek finished with nine points, but struggled from the field, hitting just three of 13 attempts.