Diop lifts USU to win over Southern Utah
The Utah State women’s basketball team chalked up their first win of the season at home, facing in-state rival Southern Utah University in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum on Monday night. USU trailed almost the entire game but took the lead late in the game and never looked back, winning 63-56.
The Aggies were led by center Banna Diop, who had a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Diop was backed up by Alice Coddington, a senior from Canberra, Australia, who added nine points and five rebounds, and junior Ashlee Brown, who added eight points and six rebounds. “
“We knew it was going to be a fight, it wasn’t going to be the same team we’ve played in the past,” said head coach Raegan Pebley.
The team started off slow and quickly fell behind the Thunderbirds 4-12. SUU was finding the holes in the defense and taking advantage of opportunities to grab the early lead. USU then seemed to wake up and fought back to even it up 20-20 behind the play of senior LaCale Pringle-Buchanan, who came off the bench and scored six points before going down with an ankle injury with 7:08 to play in the first half.
“She’s a good player and we missed her, but we fought through it,” Diop said. The Aggies had the better shooting percentage with 52 percent on field goals and 40 percent on 3-pointers to SUU’s 43.8 percent field goals and 37.5 percent three pointers, but rebounds plagued the Aggies the whole half. USU only picked up 11 rebounds to the Thunderbirds 21, and the half ended 35-34 in favor of Southern Utah.
SUU player Challis Pascucci was seemingly unstoppable in the first half as she tore up the Aggie defense for 14 points on 5-8 shooting and 4-4 on free throws. Then, in the second half, the USU defense kicked it up a notch and proved too much to handle for Pascucci, who only managed to get two more points for the rest of the game.
“She got into foul trouble and was a little gun-shy trying not to pick up her fifth, but she is a great player … and I’m proud of her aggressiveness,” SUU head coach JR Payne said.
The Aggies started off slow in the second half and SUU went up 46-38 before USU went on a 7-0 run to close the gap to 46-45. The Thunderbirds fought to keep the lead and every time USU got close, they seemed to play harder and increase their lead, this time going up 52-45. Despite this, Utah State never gave up. Banna Diop, who is only a sophomore, was determined to help the Aggies win and scored 11 points the second half and added seven rebounds.
“I wasn’t thinking about the score too much, I focused on fighting for rebounds and playing defense and the offense took care of itself,” Diop said.
With Diop’s stellar play and the big defensive improvement, mixed with 15 turnovers by SUU in the second half, the Aggies finally dug themselves out of the hole they were in to snag the lead with 2:33 left to play in the game. They kept their foot on the the gas and ended on a 9-0 run, keeping SUU at 56 points for almost the last four minutes while storming ahead for the victory, 63-56.
“It was a game we absolutely had to fight for – Southern Utah is probably the most improved team in the state,” Pebley said.
Utah State’s next game is against Utah Valley this Wednesday in Orem. USU will look to go 3-1 vs. in-state rivals and 3-4 overall.
“Utah Valley had been struggling and their win is coming, we have to work really, really hard on rebounds and defense to make sure that it isn’t against us,” Pebley said.
– jace.miller@aggiemail.usu.edu