Aggie women win shootout to stay alive in WNIT
Thursday night was full of firsts for the Utah State women’s basketball team. The Aggies’ 103-95 victory over the Arizona Wildcats in the first round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) was their first postseason win since 1977, their first ever WNIT victory, the first time they have scored over 100 points since 1982 and the first time they have ever won 18 games in season.
“It feels amazing,” said sophomore guard Devyn Christensen, who led the Aggies with a career high 27 points. “This is a huge step for our program, to win the WNIT first round versus a top PAC-10 team who was a bubble team for the NCAA tournament. It’s an awesome feeling.”
As soon as the game started, it was obvious that this one was going to be a barn burner. Arizona got on the board first with an easy layup after winning the tip, but USU quickly responded with a 5-0 run to take an early lead. Fueled by aggressiveness and intensity on both sides of the ball, the Aggies forced several fouls and turnovers and dominated early, going up 15-3 on back-to-back 3-pointers by Christensen.
The frenetic pace continued, and the Aggies continued to hit shots and force turnovers, going up 24-9 with 12:19 remaining. The Wildcats kept fighting, but struggled to cut into the Aggie lead as they trailed by double-digits almost the entire half largely due to the production of Christensen and sophomore Banna Diop, who had 12 and 11 points respectively.
“(Christensen and Diop) had great games,” head coach Raegan Pebley said. “Those two showed a lot of poise and I’m really really proud of them, but it was a total team effort.”
The remainder of the first half saw both teams scoring in bunches despite tough defense on both sides. A brief scoring spurt by Arizona at the end of the half cut the USU lead, but the Aggies still held a 46-40 advantage after shooting 56 percent from the floor in the first half and forcing 14 turnovers.
“At halftime we talked about putting two halves together and make sure we are doing what we do,” Pebley said. “We got a little passive defensively and we had to get them back aggressive. I told them don’t think about ‘I don’t want to give up a lead,’ it’s ‘we’re going to finish this game out with a win.'”
The Wildcats must have had a similar pep talk, because they came out ready to play in the second half, quickly taking the lead 49-48. USU came right back, and for the next several minutes the game went back and forth as both teams played a lot of offense and not so much defense.
“It was a very fast-paced game tonight,” said junior Ashlee Brown, who had 16 of her 20 points after halftime. “It was a track meet for sure.”
USU started to pull away as the half went on, and regained its double-digit lead with 7:44 remaining in the game. Arizona kept coming back, though, several times cutting the lead to single digits, and making the game interesting down the stretch.
Then, with 27 seconds left to go, Christensen stepped to the line, knocked down a free throw, and the Spectrum went crazy as the scoreboard read 100.
“I don’t know when the last time is that we’ve done that,” Brown said about hitting the century mark. “Arizona’s a good team and they really push the pace.”
With the win, the Aggies advance to the second round of the tournament and will take on in-state rival BYU on Saturday in Provo. The Aggies and Cougars have already faced each other once this season, a game Pebley called one of the team’s worst, “but one that we really needed.”
“We know who BYU is and what BYU is capable of,” Pebley said. “They were the most consistent team in the Mountain West this year and I feel like they probably should have gotten into the NCAA tournament, so we’re going to be challenged.”
– mark.israelsen@aggiemail.usu.edu