Aggie women win fourth-straight with big win at BSU
It wasn’t the 28-point blowout the men’s basketball team rained down on the Broncos, but it was close.
Sparked by a career evening from sophomore guard Devyn Christensen, Utah State’s woman’s basketball team soundly defeated Boise State 84-69 Saturday night, winning their fourth consecutive conference game and dropping the Broncos (11-12, 2-7 WAC) virtually out of the conference race. More importantly, perhaps, was the fact that coach Raegan Pebley’s team completed a two-game road sweep of conference opponents.
“Whenever you can win on the road in our conference it’s just awesome,” said Pebley, whose Aggies are just a half game back of Fresno State for second place in the WAC. “It’s even better when we were able to get two wins this week on the road, against two teams that are really aggressive and have great home court records. I’m really proud of our team’s toughness and our defense on the road.”
Christensen, making just her third career start, tallied a career-high 25 points, and also grabbed four rebounds and tallied four assists as the Aggies (12-10, 6-3 WAC) recorded their longest conference winning streak since the 1975-1976 season.
Playing in front of 842 fans in her hometown, the sophomore from Caldwell, Idaho was filling in for the injured Ashlee Brown. Christensen did not disappoint fans and family members in attendance, playing assuming what Pebley called a “confident” demeanor in leading the Aggie offense.
“She was great,” Pebley said. “She played very confident, and also smart. She played within our system, and I’m just really excited for her. She’s from really close to Boise – and I know she wants to beat any opponent, she’s just so competitive – but it’s nice for her to be able to win in front of her hometown.”
The Aggies fell behind the Broncos early, but after taking a 13-12 lead at the 13:54 minute mark in the first half never looked back. Aside from Christensen, senior guard Alice Coddington led the way for USU, finishing the game with a season high 17 points on 5-7 shooting from the field and a perfect 6-6 from from the free-throw line. Two other Aggies – senior Amber White and junior Maddy Plunkett – finished with double-digit scoring totals, throwing down 11 and 10 points, respectively.
The Aggies extended their lead through the middle part of the first half, going up by as much as 13 points following a White 3-pointer at the 8:46 mark. White’s three was one of four in the first half and seven 3-point shots made by the Aggies on the evening, with the team finishing 7-of-19 from beyond the arc on the night. Boise State hit just three 3-pointers all night, finishing 3-of-19. According to Pebley, 3-point shooting percentage, as well as overall field goal percentage, helped USU pull away from the Broncos.
“We were pretty selective in our threes,” Pebley said. “We got open threes, and they were good shots. We rushed them with their threes, and I think in the end, if you can shoot well on the road it just really helps your chances of getting a win.”
Taking a 41-32 lead into the half, the Aggies kept the foot on the gas in the second half, keeping the Broncos scorers at bay and even managing to push the lead to 75-55 12 minutes through the period. Despite a strong performance by center Janie Bos (9-of-10 from the field) Boise State couldn’t chip away at the lead, with Utah State holding on to a comfortable lead.
The win puts Utah State in strong position to finish out the WAC schedule, securing their third-place position in the conference, and putting them two and a half games back from WAC leader Louisiana Tech. With seven conference games left in the season the WAC pecking order is still anybody’s guess, and for the time being, Pebley is just happy that her team has put themselves in position to compete.
“It is crunch time, and it’s just such a grind this part of the year, so whether you win at home or on the road you’ll just take every win you possibly can,” Pebley said. “It’s huge, and we’ll take it wherever and whenever we can get it.”
The Aggies return to the court this Wednesday night against Idaho (12-9, 5-4 WAC) at 7 p.m.
– adam.nettina@aggiemail.usu.edu