Women’s basketball drops third straight
After winning three Mountain West games in a row, Utah State women’s basketball has now dropped three in a row against Wyoming, San Diego State and Boise State.
“Our opponents understood more about the standings and the urgency, and they played with it,” said coach Jerry Finkbeiner after the teams loss to San Diego State on Saturday. “It’s frustrating to have played three games in which we had that sense of urgency and now we’ve kind of backed off the pedal and have a sense of passiveness right now. We’ve got to gain that back in practice.”
The Aggies played Wednesday against the Boise State Broncos and lost 94-50, despite a game-high, 21-point outing by freshman guard Funda Nakkasoglu.
“If we play hard,” Finkbeiner said, “the score takes care of itself, and I’m a happy camper. I just don’t think we played hard enough tonight, and I’m a frustrated coach.”
It has been a tough stretch of the season for Utah State since losing two starters earlier in the year. USU is now 6-16 and 3-7 in MW play.
Boise State shot more than 50 percent from behind the 3-point line in the first half and put up 57 first-half points to take a 30-point lead into halftime. Utah State was unable to overcome the deficit, even with BSU’s bench playing a large portion of the second half.
“This is about as frustrating as it comes,” Finkbeiner said. “I firmly believe we’re going to bounce back and get better results.
Five players scored double-figures for the Broncos, and their bench outscored the Aggies’ bench 43-10. As part of the dominant Boise State team effort, the Broncos also out-rebounded the Aggies 45-35 and had 22 assists compared to just seven for USU.
Hot shooting was a trend that continued the entire evening for Boise State. They shot 47 percent from the floor and 48 percent on 15-31 3-point field goals. Utah State attempted more shots than their opponent but were unable to convert at a high rate, shooting just 30 percent on the night.
“It was kind of a rough game for us,” said senior guard Elise Nelson. “On the plus side, everything is something that we can improve on, and we can do that ourselves.”
— kalen.s.taylor@gmail.com
Twitter: @kalen_taylor