USU-VS-WYO-BBALL (8 of 1)

Aggie women’s basketball falls to first place Cowgirls

After a rocky 1-3 start to Mountain West Conference play, the Utah State women’s basketball team faced one of its toughest tests of the season Wednesday night in a loss to the University of Wyoming.

Wyoming, the only remaining unbeaten Mountain West team in conference play, proved to be too much to handle for the Aggies as the Cowgirls defeated USU 71-48 to earn their fourth MWC victory and improve to 12-3 on the season.

“This is the most disappointed I’ve been all year with this team,” said Aggie head coach Jerry Finkbeiner. “We were ill-prepared tonight.”

Despite out-gaining Wyoming in the rebound battle 42-31, shooting just 30 percent from the field proved to be fatal for the Aggies. Though the team performed well on the boards, Finkbeiner said that it was a lack of second-chance points that kept the team out of it.

Though the Aggies were able to contain the Mountain West’s fifth-best scorer and reigning conference player of the week Liv Roberts to 14 points, several other players stepped up for the Cowgirls including junior forward Natalie Baker and sophomore forward Marta Gomez who scored 17 points apiece.

“Talk and communication with each other was really low tonight,” said freshman forward Shannon Dufficy. “Coming off of an emotional week, we were really hyped in practice, but it didn’t transfer over into the game.”

While the Aggies struggled throughout the game to get shots to fall, the Cowgirls demonstrated why they are they are currently the most efficient shooting team in the conference. Wyoming shot 48 percent from the field and 58 percent from behind the three-point arc.

Utah State boasts the youngest starting lineup in the country, and the team lacked veteran leadership more than ever Wednesday night, playing without senior forward Antoina Robinson. Robinson missed the game due to a one-game suspension following an on-court brawl Saturday night against UNLV.

“Antoina Robinson is not worth 20 points tonight, but we missed her. There’s no question about it,” Finkbeiner said. “She definitely brings athleticism and fire off the bench.”

In the absence of Robinson, Dufficy stepped up for the Aggies, grabbing 16 rebounds, the most by an Aggie player since 2012. She also added on a team-high 12 points en route to her third double-double of the season.

“I just try and get all of the loose balls and box anyone who’s near me out,” Dufficy said. “Especially having Antoina out, I knew that I had to step up and take the balls that she would get.”

With the loss, the Aggies fell to 8-8 on the season, and 1-4 in Mountain West play.

Utah State will continue conference play Saturday afternoon when it will play host to San Diego State at 2 p.m. at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.