Utah State beats Nevada at home
“It was our best team win of the year,” said women’s basketball head coach Jerry Finkbeiner. “There’s no question about it.”
Utah State won its second-straight conference game Wednesday, beating Nevada 68-57 and improving its conference record to 2-4. The Aggies have recently emerged from a rough seven-game losing streak — including their first four games against Mountain West teams — but have a chance to move up in the standings after topping Air Force and Nevada in back-to-back games and facing UNLV at home in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum on Saturday.
“Pre-game tonight, I intentionally put some pressure on them and said, ‘We have to have this win tonight. We just have to,’” Finkbeiner said. “I wanted to put a little pressure on them because it’s time to start responding.”
And respond is just what USU did. After Nevada scored the first bucket of the game, five different Aggies contributed to an 11-0 run. Nevada tied the game up at 17 and played USU tight the rest of the half. The Aggies lead at halftime 30-27.
“Our coach really emphasized coming out harder in the second half,” said freshman guard Tilar Clark. “I feel like lately we’ve done really well with coming out in the second half with a big boom.”
Clark, who scored a career-high 17 points in the contest on six for 10 shooting, spurred the Aggies to a 38-point second half, with Clark’s baskets swinging momentum USU’s way on more than one occasion.
“When she attacks the basket in fast break,” Finkbeiner said. “There’s potential highlight tape there. There’s a little bit of that ‘no fear’ in her.”
Clark added that the team’s “run, gun and have fun” motto played a role in the team’s victory.
“We executed everything that our coach said,” Clark said. “Our transition game and our transition defense is something I felt we did really well.”
The Aggies finished with three players scoring double-digits and a combined team total of 18 assists.
“This week’s a big week for us to climb up back into the hunt in the conference,” Finkbeiner said.
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Twitter: @logantj