Utah State women’s basketball loses to Sacramento State
A game’s box score rarely tells the whole story, but there was one number in particular that stood out in Utah State’s loss to Sacramento State.
The Hornets’ consistent full-court pressure forced 27 Aggie turnovers Saturday, including 20 steals, downing USU 95-86.
“We told the girls we had to win three stats tonight to win the ball game,” USU head coach Jerry Finkbeiner said. “One is that we have to out-rebound them, one is we have to have less turnovers, and one is we have to shoot more free throws. We got beat in each of those three.”
The Hornets shot a middling 35 percent for the game, but thrived off of Aggie mistakes and routinely substituted five girls every few minutes to speed up the tempo. Finkbeiner pointed out the fast-paced feel of the game wasn’t so much an issue for USU’s offense, but weary legs on defense allowed Sacramento State to snag 35 offensive rebounds.
“These are things we can clean up and get better,” Finkbeiner said. “It’s a little bit of that killer effort and a little bit of the toughness aspect that we missed tonight.”
Utah State saw plenty of positives in its first regular season outing, particularly from its new players. Freshman guard Katie Toole led the Aggies with 22 points, while fellow freshman Rachel Brewster flirted with a triple-double, scoring eight points and notching eight assists and 11 rebounds.
“They outdid us in terms of effort,” Brewster said. “They were diving for loose balls and getting offensive rebounds, and that’s what hurt us the most. They weren’t shooting a very good percentage but they got a lot of second-chance shots.”
The Aggies led at several points in the contest and trailed by just two points at halftime. Utah State kept within four entering the fourth quarter, but the Hornets’ effective bench unit managed 10 points off of turnovers in the final period to seal the win.
Notably absent from the game for the Aggies was the threat of deep shots — USU failed to hit a three-pointer in the first half and finished the game 3-of-10 from distance. By comparison, the Hornets finished 10-of-36, but Toole explains this disparity is by design.
“Our game plan was to try and push the ball and get as many layups as we could,” Toole said.
With a Monday’s home date against Westminster fast approaching, Finkbeiner said the feeling in the locker room is one of a learning experience rather than frustration.
“Basically I just said okay, our game is over now, put it away,” he said. “Let us coaches worry about it and come back tomorrow for the shoot-around and get ready for our first home win.”
— logantjones@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @logantj
For more pictures from the game, visit the photo gallery: https://usustatesman.com/gallery/womens-basketball-usu-vs-sacramento-state/