Rough fourth quarter dooms Aggies on the road

The Utah State women’s basketball team hit the road to face Portland Wednesday night. A game which the Aggies led nearly the entire time ended in disappointment, as Portland was able to use a strong fourth quarter to down USU by a score of 61-54.

The Aggies went into the fourth quarter up by six, but ultimately ran out of steam.

“It’s not the team we’ve coached for the last six games really,” said Utah State head coach Jerry Finkbeiner. “I think we played with effort but smartness was a word we didn’t have in our game plan.”

The Aggies surrendered 24 turnovers throughout the game.

In a loss that knocked the Aggies to 2-5 on the season, Junior forward Shannon Dufficy was the bright spot of the night for the Aggies. She registered a double-double with 19 points and 14 rebounds. She also shot an uber-efficient 9-14 from the floor.

As a whole however, the Aggies shot just under 39% from the floor coupled with a 21% efficiency from three-point land.

“We missed a lot of layups, missed a lot of threes. It was just a bad game,” Finkbeiner said.

The Aggies had more than their fair share of opportunities to put the game away with leads upwards of eight points, but seemed as though they became too relaxed with those leads.

“We softened up and they really toughened up,” Finkbeiner said of the fourth quarter performance.

The Aggies will look to bounce back as they travel to square of with the University of Texas at San Antonio next Wednesday.