Aggies run away with home opener

After starting the season with two losses on the road, the Utah State women’s basketball team beat Utah Valley University 79-61.

“I think it feels great to get the first win of the season. And at home,” said senior Ingrida Strikas. “That’s how it should be. We should get all of the wins at home, and on the road we should split.”

Strikas led the way for USU with 18 points, which is a career high for her.

“I felt good,” Srikas said. “I’m just working on being patient and still improving.”

However three other Aggies reached double digits. Junior Makenlee Williams had 15, junior Stephanie Bairstow had 13 and freshman Funda Nakkasoglu had 11.

“I thought it was pretty cool from this standpoint: Mack Williams and Steph Bairstow, our two best shooters, didn’t shoot very well,” said USU head coach Jerry Finkbeiner. “I like that because it is a sign of pretty good depth at this point in the season. Our two best shooters didn’t shoot well, but Ingrida Strikas played well.”

The Aggies racked up 21 steals in the game leading to 25 points off turnovers. Eight different players had steals.

USU had 52 points in the paint, outscoring UVU by 24 in that category.

“They already had a size advantage, but they used that to their advantage,” Nakkasoglu said. “As soon as they got it in they were aggressive, and they just took the basket like Coach told them to.”

Utah State had 15 assists and only eight turnovers.

The Aggies also had the luxury of 21 points off of their bench, led by Nakkasoglu.

“Coach always says we have such depth in our team, and we rely on them every game,” Nakkasoglu said. “We can’t just get through it with our starting five. We need to rely on every player to fill out their role in every game. If we don’t have that, we’re not as strong.”

Tijana Djukic led the team with 11 rebounds.

Nakkasoglu is coming off of a concussion in USU’s season opener and will have surgery on Friday on her broken nose.

“I’ll be back on the court training on Monday,” Nakkasoglu said. “I’m going to play in the BTI tournament.”

In addition to Nakkasoglu’s 11 points, she had five steals and three assists.

“Funda is a special player; she makes our offense run,” Finkbeiner said.

The Aggies will take on No. 8 Baylor next week.