Christensen, Diop step up big for win in Brown’s absence
No Ashlee Brown, no problem for the Utah State women’s basketball team. Playing aggressive, energetic defense, the Aggie women beat San Jose State 72-57 on Saturday night, without their leading scorer and rebounder Ashlee Brown out with injury. The win gives USU a 4-3 record in the WAC and shows they can win without their star forward.
“It was a good win,” said sophomore center Banna Diop, who had 16 points in the victory. “It wasn’t only one person, it was the whole team. We all stepped up and did what we had to do.”
Right from the tip-off, the Aggies came out ready to play. Full of energy and intensity, their half-court zone trapping defense was instantly effective as they had three steals in the first three minutes. Sophomore guard Devyn Christensen got the scoring going with the first points of the game, and never let up as she had a game-high 18 points in her first career start.
“I thought Devyn did really well,” said head coach Raegan Pebley. “The more Devyn can play with confidence and continue to add depth to her basketball IQ, the more I believe that she can be an all-conference player.”
Fueled by their defense, USU got off to a hot start, as they hit their first seven shots to take a 15-5 lead early in the first half. The game then started to swing back and forth as the lady Spartans cut the lead to three, only to have Utah State go on a run of their own to push the lead back to 11. The action went back and forth as San Jose State continued to try to cut the lead, but by half the Aggies were up 35-22, after shooting a blistering 57.7 percen from the field.
“We thought it was really important not to allow San Jose State to dictate the pace,” Pebley said. “And we were able to do that with our defense.”
The second half started much the same way as the first, with Utah State playing tough defense and pushing their lead. With 12 minutes to go in the half, year? Maddy Plunkett, who finished the game with a career-high 10 points, hit back-to-back 3-pointers, giving the Aggies their largest lead of the game, 55-31. With the huge lead, it looked like the rout was on; San Jose State, however, had other ideas.
Down 24, the lady Spartans didn’t panic, but instead took advantage of three straight USU turnovers to reel off a quick 10-0 run and put themselves back in the game.
“San Jose State is a good team,” Christensen said. “They have good players and they fight. That’s one of the things we talked about all week is that they fight hard.”
And they continued to fight. Giving Utah State a taste of their own medicine, San Jose State used half-court traps and feisty defense to force turnovers go on another big run and cut the lead down to eight with less than three minutes left in the game.
“18 turnovers is too many,” said coach Pebley. “They tried to really force turnovers and they did a good job with that. We need to handle that much better, especially when we have a lead.”
Only up eight, the Aggies didn’t panic, but went back to what got them the lead; defense. With good defense, a big basket by Diop, and clutch free throw shooting by Christensen, the Aggies withstood the furious Spartan rally to secure the 15-point victory.
With the win, the Aggies moved to 10-10 on the season and also gained important confidence in their team depth.
“Definitely Ashlee’s presence was missed,” said Christensen. “But we have players on the bench that can step up and come in when someone’s out, so that was nice to see.”
The lady Aggies now look for their third straight win as they head to Reno to take on the Nevada Wolfpack on Feb. 3.
– mark.israelsen@aggiemail.usu.edu