Utah dominates USU women’s basketball
The Utah State women’s basketball team concluded its six-game road trip Tuesday night with a stop in Salt Lake City to take on the University of Utah. The Aggies fell to the Utes 92-64.
“Utah played a very good game tonight,” said USU head coach Jerry Finkbeiner. “I tried to figure out what they do best, offense or defense, and I have to go with offense. It was a physical game controlled by Utah. I don’t know if we could beat them again. Maybe at home we would have a shot but they really took it to us.”
After two-straight wins in the Great Alaska Shootout, the Aggies fell to 2-4 on the season with the loss. The Utes remain perfect on the year with a 6-0 record.
The Aggies were led by senior Devyn Christensen who scored 18 points. Fellow senior Jenna Johnson chipped in with 12 points. No other player scored in double digits for USU.
Junior Taryn Wicijowski was the Utes’ leading scorer with a game-high 21 points to go along with eight rebounds and six assists. Junior Michelle Plouffe added 19 points and seven boards for the Utes.
“They had some really hard matchups tonight for us with 6-foot-4 Plouffe and 6-foot-3 Wicijowski – two really good players who have a lot of national team experience with Canada and very poised and strong physically,” Finkbeiner said.
Finkbeiner experimented with different lineups and started freshman Stephanie Bairstow and Makenlee Williams. Christensen has been spending some time at the point guard position.
“Devyn is in a little bit of a learning curve right now, playing that position of the one, and the two freshman are in a big learning curve transitioning to Division I,” Finkbeiner said.
USU got on the board first after a 3-pointer by Bairstow but the lead didn’t last for long. The Utes pulled ahead two minutes later and never trailed for the remainder of the game.
The game was close with a little more than 13 minutes remaining in the first half and USU down 14-10. A turnover by USU’s junior Haylee Thompson sparked a 27-8 run by the Utes to end the first half.
The Aggies went into the break down 41-18 while shooting 30 percent from the field and 22 percent from 3-point range. The Utes had 20 points off 11 turnovers in the first half. Johnson led all Aggies in scoring with six points at the break. Wicijowski had 13 for Utah.
“We challenged the girls at halftime to look at the big picture with the WAC conference play coming in January and February with a lot of ball still left to play and to do better in the second half,” Finkbeiner said.
USU came out with more energy in the second half but it wasn’t enough to mount a comeback. The Aggies shooting percentage improved to 42 percent and USU had one turnover in the second half.
After scoring just two points in the first half, Christensen put up 16 in the second but didn’t receive much help from the rest of the team. With 12:36 remaining in the game, the Utes expanded their lead to 31 points.
With the loss, USU falls to 2-31 all-time against the in-state rival. The game was a rematch of last year’s first-round NIT matchup which Utah won 69-58 in Salt Lake City.
The Aggies now turn their attention to Saturday when they play their first home game of the season. USU will host Montana State in the Spectrum at 2 p.m.
“It will definitely be a welcoming event for our kids,” Finkbeiner said. “We haven’t had our own bed to sleep in for more than two nights in a row. We welcome this Saturday’s home game and we play a very good Montana State team, so we will have to play our best.”
After starting the first two weeks of the season on the road, the team and coaching staff are looking forward to being back in Logan, even if it’s only for a few days.
“We go to BYU and Notre Dame the week after, so we are trained to survive until the end of next month when we have four home games to enter the WAC,” Finkbeiner said. “It’s survival mode right now and this Saturday’s game couldn’t have come at a better time.”
Montana State began the season with three-straight wins over Colorado State, Denver and Clemson. Their only loss came against Southern Methodist by one point, 71-70.
The Bobcats are led by sophomore Karli Durham and senior Rachel Semansky. Through four games, Durham is averaging 15 points and 5.5 rebounds a game and Semansky is averaging 14 points and 7 boards a night.
– jborba@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @JBorba15