USU WBB: Aggies struggle to score on Cowgirls in second half, lose third in a row
LOGAN — After a dominant first half, Utah State Women’s Basketball fell to the Wyoming Cowgirls in a hard-fought battle at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum 64-52 on Thursday night.
The Aggies led by as many as 18, but couldn’t hold off the Cowgirls in the second half. Utah State fell to 4-16 on the season and 1-8 in conference play, while Wyoming advanced to 13-7 and 6-3.
The Cowgirls are one of the top teams in the Mountain West, but Utah State wasn’t caught off guard.
“I thought we had a really good game plan which showed itself in the first half,” said USU head coach Kayla Ard.
Utah State’s game plan certainly worked in the first half, but Wyoming was able to make adjustments and pull off a come-from-behind victory.
The first quarter was commanded by the Aggies, with guard Maria Carvalho scoring four points before the Cowgirls made it onto the scoreboard. Back-to-back 3-pointers from guard Olivia Wikstrom and forward Ashya Klopfenstein capped off a 10-2 run for the Aggies to open the game and set the tone for the first half. At the end of the first quarter, the Aggies led 19-7.
Utah State carried the momentum into the second quarter and surged to an 18-point lead, their largest of the night, thanks in part to an 8-point run early in the quarter.
The third quarter was where the momentum shifted in favor of the Cowgirls. They were able to slow down Utah State’s offense and held the Aggies to just eight points in the quarter, tying the game at 44 going into the final quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the Cowgirls continued to roll, outscoring the Aggies 20 to 8 to secure the 64-52 victory. The Aggies fought hard to the end, but Wyoming’s defense proved to be too much.
The leading scorers for the Aggies were Klopfenstein and forward Prima Chellis with 12 points apiece. Chellis also had four steals and three rebounds and Klopfenstein had four rebounds and two blocks.
Ard gave credit to Wyoming’s second-half defensive adjustments saying, “I thought they did a really good job of going to that zone and figuring out that we were struggling against it and stayed with it and our scoring just dropped and we just couldn’t score in the second half.”
Ard also had praise for her own team’s defense.
“The problem was not on the defensive end. It was on the offensive end of the floor.” She went on to say, “To hold them to 64 points, I’m pretty proud of that. I thought our defense was pretty solid but our offense was really bad the second half against the zone.”
The loss is a tough one for the Aggies, and while they weren’t able to close out the game with a win, they played an excellent first half and showed off an elite defense. Utah State hopes to build on that momentum going forward. The Cowgirls, on the other hand, will look to continue their push toward the top of the conference standings.
USU is back in action on Saturday at 2 p.m. when they host New Mexico in the Spectrum. The game will be broadcast on Aggie Radio 92.3 FM.
Featured image by Phil Weber.