Aird leads Ag women in win
The Utah State women’s basketball team defeated the UC Riverside Highlanders 71-55 Thursday night in the Spectrum.
A 14-0 run in the first 10 minutes of the first half put the Aggies up for good and had Riverside trying to stay within 20 points for most of the rest of the game.
“From start to finish our kids stayed pretty focused,” head coach Raegan Pebley said. “Our kids played really hard, really aggressive and smart.”
Ali Aird came out strong for the Aggies in the first half with 13 points. She finished the game leading all scorers with 19 points and six boards.
“That was really important,” Pebley said. “We knew they were going to sag inside. She was in her groove so she could get some scoring. I couldn’t have asked for it to go better in the second half offensively.”
Behind Aird, the Aggies went into the locker room up by 18 points after the first half in what Pebley said was a very balanced half. She said the Aggies did well on offense, but she also said she was really proud of how her team changed over to defense when it needed to.
“We were pretty pumped by being up by that,” Aird said, “but we knew we still had 20 minutes left to go out there and play. We tried to come out with as much intensity as we could.”
Aird also said the Aggies were really working hard on defense and were trying to take away every shot UCR was looking for.
“We were shooting really well in the first half,” Christina Zdenek said. “We were just going at them. Not waiting for them to show us something. We didn’t give them a chance at all. [There was] no need.”
Zdenek said in practice all week the Ags have been working on simulating how Riverside plays. She said when they practice the Aggies go at each other hard and the coaches really stay on top of the players and push them hard as well. That way, the team knows it is ready for the game. When it came time for the Aggies to face the real thing, Zdenek said she felt the game was much easier than practice.
In the first half Utah State held Riverside’s leading score Kemie Nkele to only two points.
Nkele is currently the only player to average a double-double in the Big West. She finished the game with 14 points and three rebounds.
Pebley said she was really happy with how the Aggies defended Nkele.
“Jessica [Freeman] and Ali both did a really good job on her,” Pebley said. “They played her exactly like we needed to play her.”
The Aggies now have four more games left to play in the regular season, and are ranked fifth in conference.
Zdenek said the team’s goal all season has been to end up in the top four in conference so it can have a bye for the first round of the Big West tournament.
“These last five games are clutch,” Zdenek said. “The last deciding factors on who is placed where.”
The Aggies will next face Cal State Fullerton. Fullerton is currently ranked second to last in the Big West, but Pebley said, the Aggies have yet to beat the Titans since Utah State has played them. She said she hopes the team will be able to come out strong and get a win.
“I just want to get that win so bad,” Zdenek said. “We beat ourselves when we played at their place. I jsut want to go out there and dominate just shut them down and get a win.”
The game starts at 7 p.m. and will be the Aggies’ last home game.
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu