USU women top last season’s WAC win mark
Surpassing last year’s win total for Western Athletic Conference play, the lady Aggies went to 3-2 as they defeated San Jose State University 58-50 Saturday evening.
Junior forward Jenny Gross put 13 points on the board, giving the Aggies a push toward the win as the game came to a close. Gross also offered her services as rebounder, pulling down a game-high nine rebounds. Free-throw shooting worked well for Gross as she shot 7-9 from the line, and she spent much of the second half pushed to the ground while being fouled.
“We knew going into it that they were a physical team and that we were just going to have to be ready, you know, step up and be the ones to initiate the aggressiveness, I guess, not back down,” Gross said in a post-game radio interview
Leading as the game began, the Aggies had to fight to maintain that lead. But the Spartans managed to gain the lead 9-25 as the first half came to a close.
Narrowly exceeding the Spartans in field goal percentage of 35.3 with 37 percent, the Aggies fell to 34-27 following the half-time break. But the Spartan lead was short-lived as USU shot 15-2 to take them ahead 42-36 with 12:15 left to play. After the Spartans tied the game at 42, the Aggies rallied to a 48-42 lead.
“We talked about focus, rebounding and taking care of the ball,” Head Coach Reagan Pebley said. “We didn’t want to do a lot of different adjustments. We just felt like they just needed to get back to doing what we do well and do the simple things right.”
Senior forward Brittany Phillips scored 10 points for the team along with junior guard Taylor Richard’s 11 points. A change-up in the starting players gave the Aggies a chance to mix things up and allow for other players to take the court early on in the game.
The Aggies were out-rebounded 37-28 in the game, but what they lacked in that area they made up for by making 21-28 at the free-throw line, and the Spartans put up a huge 21 fouls in the game.
With 13 seconds left to play, the Aggies gained their biggest lead of the game 56-48. Sophomore guard Danyelle Snelgro stepped up to the free-throw line to give USU its final winning score of 58 with six seconds on the clock.
“We’re building more confidence every game,” Pebley said. “We’ve been lucky to play at home for a while. As we go on the road we need to carry that confidence with us.”
Lady Aggies basketball will continue play on Jan. 24 when they head to Boise, Idaho, to take on Boise State University. They will then return home for a Jan. 27 game against Hawai’i.
-eawads@cc.usu.edu