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USU women’s basketball set for Maui Classic

The Utah State women’s basketball team is heading to the Hawaiian islands to participate in the 2nd annual Maui Classic this weekend.

After a 1-4 start to the season, the Aggies will compete in the two-day, four-team tournament against Montana State on Friday at 9 p.m. MST and against Oregon State at 11 p.m. MST on Saturday. All games will take place at the War Memorial Gym in Wailuku, Hawaii.

Oregon State is the host team of the tournament, and they enter the weekend ranked No. 21 in the nation. The Beavers won the 2016 Pac 12 regular season championship and finished 8th in the country after posting a 31-5 overall record. All-time, USU and Oregon State have faced off four times, the Beavers leading 3-1.

Montana State enters the tournament 3-2 on the season, and picked to finish fourth in the Big Sky Conference in the pre-season poll. Though the Bobcats lead the all-time series against USU 10-3, the Aggies defeated Montana State last season in Logan.

Fellow Mountain West team Nevada will be a part of the tournament as well, though they will not face off against USU.

This is the second year the tournament has been held, with last year’s field featuring Oregon State, BYU, UNLV and Idaho. Along with playing in two games, the Aggies will also visit a local elementary school to teach children about the importance of education and athletics.

This will be the first time USU has traveled to Hawaii since 2012 when the team faced off against then-conference mate University of Hawaii. All time, the Aggies are 5-5 in games played on the islands.

The Maui Classic will be the Aggies only regular season tournament this season. The past two seasons they have participated in the Lady Griz Classic in Missoula, Montana.

There will be no video stream available, but both games will be broadcast live on 92.3 KBLU in Cache Valley, as well as on aggieradio.com.