Aggies roll Nevada, set sights on senior night game and beyon
On Saturday, Utah State traveled to Nevada and closed out the Wolf Pack, 71-59, in a game which, for its majority, they were the frontrunners.
USU junior guard Eliza West played a pivotal role in the win and, with her Nana in the stands, the Australian-native had one of her best performances of the season with a career-high 18-points along with eight assists.
“I didn’t want to try to do too much of anything,” West said, “but when my shots came, I was able to make them.”
Several Aggies ran into foul trouble early, with Hailey Bassett and Shannon Dufficy each picking up two fouls in the first quarter, however, their teammates responded.
“It didn’t hurt us because our bench did a really good job,” said USU head coach Jerry Finkbeiner.
Utah State came alive after a tight first quarter, and in the second period scored eight unanswered points, a run which came in the middle of the quarter and which put the Wolf Pack down, 33-18.
“I just felt like everybody had really good flow on offense and defense,” West said.
Nevada creeped back into the game, however, and with a little over six minutes remaining in the third quarter, Essence Booker hit a three which put the Wolf Pack within five points of USU.
They weren’t able to capitalize and take the lead, however, and Utah State finished the quarter up by 12.
“Even when we had little bad patches, it didn’t bother us too much because we already had the lead,” West said.
USU kept their composure throughout the final period and cruised to a 71-59 win, albeit, in a competitive game.
“This is a good win for us from a lot of different perspectives,” Finkbeiner said.
The Aggies will play Colorado State next on Monday night at 7:00 p.m., trying to get a win on senior night while continuing to build their momentum heading into the Mountain West tournament.
“We need some momentum, everybody needs momentum going in (to the MW tournament), Finkbeiner said, “we got a home game Monday night, so all our fans and Cache Valley listening to this, let’s come out and support (seniors) Rachel (Brewster) and Deja (Mason).”