USU falls to WAC-best Bulldogs, remains in second
The Utah State women’s basketball team dropped its third conference game of the season Saturday, falling to Fresno State 78-60.
Junior guard Devyn Christensen scored a game-high 21 points for the Aggies, and junior guard Jenna Johnson added 17.
“Devyn led her team really well,” said head coach Raegan Pebley. “We had a lot of players play hard. We just need to play hard while we play with poise.”
Christensen had another fast start with a 3-pointer 12 seconds in, and USU jumped out to a 14-8 lead in the first seven minutes. Fresno State responded with a 10-4 run over the next four minutes, and the game turned into a battle between the WAC’s top two teams.
The Bulldogs and Aggies combined for two points in a span of three and a half minutes, before Fresno State’s Rosie Moult connected on a 3-pointer to give the Bulldogs a five-point lead with seven minutes left in the half.
Moult, a junior guard, scored 15 first-half points for the Bulldogs and finished with 20 on the night.
The Aggies’ offensive woes continued as they scored once in eight minutes on a fast-break layup from senior forward Ashlee Brown. Fresno’s defense held Brown to five points in 29 minutes of play.
Fresno led by as much as 13 in the first half, before USU went on an 8-4 run to close the gap within nine at the intermission.
“They were able to exploit some things and go on runs,” Pebley said. “Fresno is a team that wins games on runs and wins games with their defense. We weren’t able to stay confident mentally when they went on those runs.”
The Aggies suffered another scoring drought to start the second half.
Moult continued to give USU problems as she recorded three blocks early in the second half, disrupting the Aggies’ offense. Moult gave the Bulldogs a 16-point advantage on a 3-pointer with 16 minutes remaining, and the Aggies would get no closer than 12 the rest of the way.
Fresno State had three players in double digits in scoring, as sophomore guard Ki-Ki Moore finished with 12 points, and freshman forward Alex Sheedy added 10.
“Fresno State played really well tonight,” Pebley said. “We had spurts when we played well and stuck to the game plan, but we let the game get out of hand when we lost our poise.”
Utah State finished shooting 33.9 percent from the field, compared to 46.3 percent for Fresno State. The Aggies committed 18 turnovers and were outscored 48-26 in the paint.
The Aggies fell to 17-8 overall and 8-3 in the WAC. The Bulldogs improved to 22-4 this season and remained perfect in conference play at 10-0.
USU returns to the Spectrum to host Idaho on Feb. 25. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.
With three games remaining in the regular season, USU is one game ahead of Louisiana Tech for the No. 2 seed in the WAC tournament. The Aggies will finish the season with three straight home games against Idaho, Hawaii and San Jose State.
– curtis.lundstrom@aggiemail.usu.edu