USU to take on Reno in first round
The Western Athletic Conference women’s basketball tournament kicks off Wednesday, with eight teams competing for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Utah State will head into competition as the conference’s No. 2 seed behind top dog, Fresno State. The Aggies finished the season with a 20-8 record and an 11-3 mark in WAC play.
Up first for USU is the University of Nevada on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.
The Wolf Pack finished the season with a 7-22 record overall this season, including a 3-11 record in conference play. Utah State swept the two meetings this season, 91-69 at home Jan. 21 and 84-72 in Reno, Nev., Feb. 16.
“The first time we played them they didn’t have Kayla Williams,” USU head coach Raegan Pebley said. “We feel like this is a very good team that we’re getting ready to play. They are coming off of two great wins. They’ve got great tournament history as well, I think we’ve got a difficult first-round draw.”
Junior guard Devyn Christensen leads three fellow Aggie players in double figures in scoring at 20 points per game. Senior forward Ashlee Brown averages 14.4 points per game, and senior guard Brooke Jackson averages 12.1 points per game.
“She has definitely been a huge spark for our team in conference play,” Pebley said. “Her confidence is special. I can’t give a player confidence, a player earns that confidence. She has that Ray Allen work ethic where she wants to be first in the gym. She wants extra shots. She knows how to prepare herself for games. She is one of those kids that I am like, ‘Man, I am glad that she is on our team,’ because it would be really hard to stop her.”
As a team, USU is ranked in the top 20 nationally and leads the conference in three statistical categories on offense: field goal percentage (46.4 percent), free throw percentage (78.7 percent) and 3-point field goal percentage (42.3 percent).
Three Aggie players rank in the top 10 in the WAC in 3-point percentages: Sophomore guard Jennifer Schlott at 48.3 percent (second), Christensen at 44.1 percent (third) and Jackson at 40.4 percent (fourth).
Jackson leads the conference in field goal percentage at 56.5 percent, and Christensen is tops in free throw percentage at 94.7 percent. Christensen and Brown were named to the First Team All-WAC on Monday, and Brown was named Player of the Week and Defensive Player of the Year.
“Ashlee does anchor our defense,” Christensen said. “She has great hands on steals and she anticipates well. The type of defense that we play, it is a lot of anticipation, and she reads people so well. That is great award, and I am super proud of her and happy for her.”
Brown is ranked second in the WAC at 1.6 blocks per game and sixth in steals with 1.9 per game. Junior guard Jenna Johnson sits right behind Brown in steals with an average of 1.8 per game.
Defensively, the Aggies rank second in the conference, with 10.7 steals and 3.9 blocks per game, as well as fifth in scoring defense, giving up 67.9 points per game.
“Defense and rebounding win you championships,” Pebley said. “That’s a huge part of what we work on and what we’ll keep working on. We’ll keep trying to find ways to get better at that. When we go to the WAC tournament, that’s what we’re going to have to rely on. That’s an area of the floor we feel like we should show as much chemistry and heart as our offense shows.”
– curtis.lundstrom@aggiemail.usu.edu