Christmas break full of ups and downs as women’s team prepares for WAC play
In their final games before WAC conference play begins, the Utah State Aggies women’s basketball team took advantage of tough scheduling to help them prepare. The Aggies defeated South Dakota State on Dec. 20, lost to Wyoming, the MWC leader on Dec. 23, and then played tough, but ultimately fell to in-state rival Utah on New Year’s Day.
“We tried to challenge ourselves with the scheduling, and compete against some of the better teams in this area heading into conference,” said head coach Raegan Pebley. “Against Wyoming we shot horribly, our defense was not where we needed it to be, so I’m proud of how our girls bounced back at Utah, where we showed so much more effort and focus and had a chance to win that game.”
In their first game during the holiday break, the Aggies hit a season-high 20 free throws to beat South Dakota State 60-57. Sophomore guard Devyn Christensen led USU with 14 points off the bench while sophomore Jenna Johnson scored 12 and senior Alice Coddington put in 11 points.
The Utah State women followed up that game with a tough game against Wyoming. The Cowgirls of Wyoming are first in the Mountain West, and played that way against USU, beating them 80-50. Coddington had a season high 14 points and junior Ashlee Brown added 12, but they were the lone Aggies in double figures. Wyoming’s Hillary Carlson scored 24 and as a team the Cowgirls hit 11 3-pointers, which proved too much for the Aggies to overcome.
“It’s harder for younger players to stay focused during the holidays,” Pebley said. “Heading into the Wyoming game I felt that was a factor. There are still quite a few positions that we’re young in, so we did learn from it.”
In their last game before conference play, the Aggies headed to Salt Lake to take on in-state rival Utah. In this back and forth game, there were nine lead changes and six ties, but Utah closed the game with an 11-2 run to take the victory, 73-61. Brown led the scoring for the Aggies with 15, with sophomores Christensen and Banna Diop also scoring in double figures with 12 apiece.
With their season about halfway through, the Aggies have improved a lot. After losing their first four games, the Aggies then went on to win five straight, and have been steadily improved since then.
“I think it’s going to be really important in conference that you take care of home,” Pebley said. “Our league has a lot of great teams and I think we are arguably one of the better conferences in the West right now. Anyone can beat anyone, and I think that the team with the best home record is going to be the team that is able to pull off a conference championship and high seeds.”
“We’ve improved a lot in our point guard play,” Pebley said. “We’ve installed a new defensive system that is a lot more aggressive than years past, and when we first started out, it wasn’t very pretty. Now the girls are understanding what it takes to be successful in this aggressive defense, and I think we’ve gotten better in handling special situations, which will pay dividends as we head into conference with such close games.”
The Aggies face conference opponent Nevada Jan. 15 in Logan.
– mark.israelsen@aggiemail.usu.edu