Full-court press too much for women’s basketball versus snow
The full-court press was too much for the Utah State University women’s basketball team as they were defeated at home by Snow College Saturday in the Spectrum.
When the Aggies came into Saturday’s game they felt confident they would do better than they did earlier in the season when they played Snow and lost by five points, assistant coach Shanna Stevens said.
As a result of the press, the Aggies turned the ball over 26 times which led to a final score of 72-49.
In the first five minutes of the second half alone, the Aggies had five turnovers that turned into six points for Snow.
Once Snow instituted the press, the Aggies were never able to play the game they wanted to play, Head Coach Chalyce Stevens said, which is the outside game, taking it to the middle and dishing it back out for the jump shot or three-pointer and also getting to the foul line.
Defense was also a part of the game the Aggies missed, she said.
“Snow College has got some athletic girls, but if you don’t give an athletic girl the ball to begin with she can’t do anything with it,” Chalyce said. “We allowed them to have the ball and then we tried to play defense.”
The Aggies were completely taken out of their game, Shanna said, and there is very little the coaches can do in a situation like that.
“It’s up to the kids. You give the kids the opportunity to step up, then you find out if they’re going to step up or not,” Shanna said. “They raise the intensity, the coaches don’t.”
A few players did try to get things started, Chalyce said, including Michelle Dyreng, who had seven rebounds and 16 points for the team high, and a few injured players who came off the bench and stepped it up when the starters weren’t doing it. But Chalyce wanted more from her team.
“I don’t feel like anybody rose above their expectations,” Chalyce said.
The Aggies are a much better team than they seem, Chalyce said, and when they lose the way they did against Snow they look like the Aggies of the past.
This week the Aggies will definitely work on the press for up coming game and tournament, which will give them a second chance at Snow, Shanna said, but they will mostly focus on the basics. They also want their practices to be more intense so it will carry over into their games, she said.
On Tuesday, the Aggies will have the chance to show their improvement when they play Salt Lake Community College in Salt Lake at 6 p.m.