USU falls to NMSU again
Utah State senior Jenny Gross scored a career-high 19 points in a 71-58 home court loss to the New Mexico State Aggies Thursday night in the Spectrum.
Gross’ effort wasn’t enough to subdue the NewMags (14-4, 4-1), who came into the contest second in the Western Athletic Conference. New Mexico State won the battle of the boards, tallied more steals and out-shot the northern Aggies, 53-43 percent from the field. Against stats like that, USU was lucky just to make it close.
And close it was.
Despite the 13-point deficit looming over their heads as the final buzzer sounded, the Aggies of Utah State gave the NewMags a run for their money, and the crowd something to cheer about.
“This was a very good team,” Utah State head coach Raegan Pebley said. “They came out and played well.”
USU (6-12, 2-4) was slow out of the gates, quickly falling behind 5-0. However, they started to put it together, sparked by a flawless 15-foot jumper by Alice Coddington, the freshman out of Canberra, Australia.
The northern Aggies never let the NewMags get more than four points ahead for the rest of the first half. The first 20 minutes of regulation featured five ties and eight lead changes. USU jumped on top for the first time with just over six minutes remaining in the first half after senior guard Taylor Richards hit a short jumper from five feet out. As the NewMags answered at the other end of the court, so did Gross, chipping in a couple of buckets of her own to regain the elusive lead.
“I had some great passes from my teammates,” Gross said. “They passed it down low and I was able to finish some shots.”
At the other end of the court, NMSU was led early on by their bruisers in the paint-seniors Sherrell Neal and Anikia Jawara. The NMSU offense executed their plays crisply, allowing for an overwhelming advantage in the paint. Neal beat the buzzer on an inbounds play and drained a short jumper to send the southern Aggies into the locker room with the lead.
As the second half got underway, the USU looked like the same resilient team.
More ties and lead changes followed. The Aggies took their first lead of the second half after just two minutes of play when junior guard Danyelle Snelgro drove and sunk a layup. Gross put up two more points in the paint off a Snelgro assist with 15 minutes to play, giving USU a 43-42 lead.
It would be USU’s final lead of the game.
New Mexico State answered with back to back layups by Neal, who finished the game with a team-high 18 points. From there the Aggies from the south never looked back.
“The last 10 minutes, we couldn’t score,” Pebley said. “We had a slew of turnovers and missed some wide open shots. We didn’t execute. They did.”
The Aggies went cold and scoreless for two consecutive 3-minute draughts, interrupted only by a short jumper by junior Ndoumbe Diop, who finished the evening with six points.
As the lead continued to grow, USU was forced to foul. A relatively strong showing from the NewMags from the free throw line was the death knell in USU’s coffin.
“We need a quick turnaround to be ready for a very good Louisiana Tech team,” Pebley said. “We need to be consistent on offense and maximize on our opportunities.”
USU will host the Bulldogs at the Spectrum Saturday night. Tip-off is at 7 p.m.
-jackson.olsen@aggiemail.usu.edu