USU women win
It wasn’t until the Aggies blocked a three-point attempt with eight seconds left and Brittany Tressler scored a lay-up at the buzzer that they knew they had their fourth win.
Utah State defeated Cal State Northridge for the second time this season, 76-71 at the Spectrum.
“It’s great to win again,” said freshman Aggie Christina Zdenek. “We had to win again. It makes everything so much better. We knew we could beat them and we had to take advantage of that confidence.”
The Aggies started the game with much more confidence than they showed on the road, taking an early lead and staying with the Matadors for the rest of the game.
During the game, there were 27 lead changes. The Aggies managed to come out on top with their defensive game.
In a rare showing for the Aggies, the team dominated on rebounding. The Matadors had only 26 rebounds total, only four more than the Aggies had on offense. USU finished the game with 43 rebounds.
“I like these kind of games,” said Utah State sophomore Jessica Freeman. “Especially when we win.”
Freeman was looking more like her old self defensively. She added four blocked shots, giving the Aggies a total of eight. Freeman also made her presence known offensively going 7-for-9 from the line to give her nine points.
“We have really been working on defense this week,” said Zdenek. “When we want to do it and have the intensity we can do it. We showed that with their last shot.”
Aggie Head Coach Raegan Pebley said, “Defensively we played a better game. It was a good game for both teams.”
Zdenek led a quartet of Aggies in double figures putting 19 points up on the board, 13 coming in during the second half. She had a rough start during the first half, going 0-for-4 from behind the arc, but she kept the shots coming.
“The key to being a good shooter is to not stop shooting when you’re missing,” said Zdenek.
Tressler was on fire as she started scoring again and tallied 16 points for the Aggies, scoring the final points of the game. She almost pulled a double-double pulling down nine rebounds. Brittany Hagen was on fire from behind the arc, hitting three 3-pointers to help her to her 13 points.
Ali Aird, had the only double-double with 12 rebounds and 10 points.
Ofa Tulikihihifo, Northridge’s leading scorer, who had only two points last time the two teams faced each other, led the Matadors and all scorers with her 20 points. Kim Gildersleeve put 11 points up with three 3-pointers for CSN.
The Aggies will play at home again on Saturday against the Pacific Tigers at 7 p.m.
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu