Aggies look to remain perfect in BW
Shereen Saurey, sports writer
After crushing the University of California at Riverside on Tuesday, the USU basketball team will return to Big West Conference action. The Aggies are looking to extend their nine- game winning streak, facing off against Boise State University Saturday night.
Senior guard Curtis Bobb said the team is feeling strong as it prepares for the upcoming game.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence when we play other teams in our league,” Bobb said.
The 15-2 Aggies have won 23 consecutive games against BWC opponents dating back to last year. USU currently sits atop the BWC standings and is undefeated in the conference, 4-0. Three USU players lead the league in statistics. Bobb is first in the conference for3-point field goal percentage (46.1 percent), Daniels’ 60 percent shooting average puts him at the top of the league and senior guard Bernard Rock leads the Big West with 4.0 assists per game.
Boise State is ranked fifth out of the nine conference teams. BSU’s Kejuan Woods scored 22 points in Boise State’s most recent contest against Long Beach State University. He ranks second in scoring during conference games.
Like USU’s recent match-ups with UC Riverside and the University of the Pacific, Saturday’s game will be a game of defense.
“[The Broncos] are really good defensively,” Bobb said. “Their game plan is to get up after you and pressure you to make you do things you don’t want to do on offense, so we’re going to have to step up our offense.”
Senior forward Shawn Daniels said defense will take both individual and team effort.
“I’ll need to play defense on whoever I have to stick,” Daniels said. “We need team defense, too. Sometimes my teammates might need a little help. Sometimes I need a little help, too.”
Daniels noted that athletes coming off the bench have contributed a great deal to the victories.
“We’re getting a lot of scoring from a lot of people,” Daniels said. “We’re all playing good as a team.”
Bobb said he doesn’t allow the high expectations of the team to affect him when he is on the court.
“We can’t think ‘Oh, we can’t lose’ and put a lot of pressure on ourselves,” he said. “We just go out and play game by game. If we lose one or two or three here and there, we’re fine. We’re just going out to win another championship.”