USU drops Nevada behind career night from freshman
Utah State women’s basketball beat Nevada 70-55 at home on Wednesday night.
The Aggies improved to 12-14 and 7-8 in the Mountain West. Nevada dropped to 5-21 and 4-11 in the MW.
“Tonight, we had more threat on the ball,” said USU coach Jerry Finkbeiner. “In the third quarter we kind of lost that ball pressure, but hey, we started three freshmen and two sophomores. They are our future and we’re getting better.”
Freshman center Deja Mason paced the Aggies with 11 points and 10 rebounds, her first career double-double. She also added an assist, two blocks and a steal to her total.
“A lot of the post players have helped me because I’m one of the youngest posts,” Mason said. “They’ve really helped me work on my post moves, get stronger and finish better. Overall, they just help me do what I’m supposed to.”
USU built up a big lead in the first half and led 40-26 at the break. In the third quarter, Nevada came out shooting well and Utah State went cold.
“We knew they had a strong post game,” Mason said. “We knew we were going to have to come out strong and do it on defense. Defense was the most important thing.”
It took more than four minutes for the Aggies to get a bucket in the second half. Funda Nakkasoglu broke the scoring draught with a circus shot and a free throw. The four-minute scoring lull let Nevada cut the lead down to four points with seven minutes to play in the game. However, seven turnovers in the next five minutes doomed the Wolfpack’s comeback attempt.
Nakkasoglu finished the game with 25 points on 11 of 17 shooting, she also added six assists. Forward Teige Zeller and guard Stephanie Schmid were the leading scorers for Nevada with 13 points each, Zeller also had nine rebounds.
Forwards Julianne Anchling, Angelica de Paulo, Antiona Robinson and Tijana Djukic all played extended minutes due to early foul trouble from starter Hannah Hutchins. Robinson had eight points, Anchling had five and the four combined for 12 rebounds. Hutchins fouled out with 2:09 left in the third quarter.
“It’s a process of development,” Finkbeiner said. “Tonight, she was the wrong person in the wrong place. I don’t fault Hannah at all. I would rather have a girl foul out than be a passive player. She wanted to be a player, you can’t fault that.”
Utah State has three more regular season games before starting the MW tournament on March 7. After a road game against San Jose State on Saturday, the Aggies final home game is on Tuesday against Air Force.
“We’re getting better in small steps,” Finkbeiner said. “We’re heading into the conference tournament and we can beat anyone on any given night. I just hope those nights line up for us.”
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