Nevada also beats Ag women
Deja vu struck the Aggies once again on Saturday at the Spectrum as they lost to the Nevada Wolf Pack, 67-51 in a double-header with the men’s basketball team.
It was also Senior Night and the women’s team gave thanks and recongnized their three seniors, Jessica Freeman, Ali Marchant and Ashley Rutledge.
“They came here from other schools with established programs,” said Head Coach Raegan Pebley. “They’ve done a lot to build this program and we owe a lot to them.”
Even with Senior Night and the team up almost the entire first half, they couldn’t pull out a win.
“It was hard,” said Danyelle Snelgro, who was one of the top Aggie scorers for the game with 10 points, five assists and two steals. “It was Senior Night and we wanted to send them off with a good one.”
The first half started with a bang for Utah State as they quickly gained a lead for themselves. Jenny Gross scored the first points of the night followed by Rutledge. The Wolf Pack fought back and finally replaced the zero on the scoreboard with a three as Dellena Criner shot from behind the arc. Criner was Nevada’s leading scorer with 18 points, three of the shots from 3-point land.
The Aggies lead up until a Wolf Pack run pushed them from 24-16 to finishing the half 25-30.
“We did a very poor job of taking care of the ball in both halves,” Pebley said. “Rebounding was much better. Still, we had way too many turnarounds in the first half,” she said.
In the first half alone, the Aggies suffered 17 turnovers. The Wolf Pack had 10 in the whole game.
The second half wasn’t much better for the Aggies as the Wolf Pack took charge once again, going on an 8-0 run to push their lead to 25-38. The Aggies couldn’t manage to recapure the lead after that.
“They put a lot of pressure on us the whole game,” senior Ali Marchant said. Marchant had seven points and one block.
“We hadn’t seen that, so I think it made it a bit harder. They are really good as a team,” she said.
Rutledge was also a leading scorer for the Aggies with 10 points two assists and one steal. Freeman had eight points and two blocks.
The women still have two games to go both away. Their next game is March 2 at Fresno State.
-vramirez@cc.usu.edu
Utah State’s Taylor Richards drives to the hoop against a Nevada defender during Saturday’s game at the Spectrum. The Aggies lost 67-51.