Utah State beats winless Air Force
Utah State women’s basketball team took care of business against an 0-15 Air Force team on the road in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
“We were very much in the game all the way through the fourth quarter,” said Chris Gobrecht, the first-year Air Force head coach. “We have a chance to win the game. We haven’t experienced that all year. We keep getting closer and closer and we’re going to get over the top at some point.”
The Aggies improved to 8-8 overall and 3-2 in the Mountain West with a 66-53 over the struggling Falcons.
Sophomore Funda Nakkasoglu was the game’s leading scorer. She poured in 34 points, just missing her season high of 37 set earlier against Pacific. Nakkasoglu was 14 of 24 shooting and added three assists to her total.
“We were prepared to let that happen,” Gobrecht said. “I thought they really struggled with what we were doing. We probably shouldn’t have given up so many of the easy ones. She’s that good, but they are in trouble if she’s not out there.”
Freshman guard Rachel Brewster was the second leading scorer for the Aggies. She had an efficient 10 points on 3 of 5 shooting which included 1 of 2 from 3-point range.
Although Utah State won by double digits, the game was close during much of the second half. With just over seven minutes to play, USU held a 51-50 advantage. The Aggies used a nearly six-minute scoring drought by the Falcons in the fourth quarter to extend their lead. Air Force finished the game on a 2 of 10 shooting slump.
Rileymarie Clarke was the leading scorer for AF. She had 15 points on 5 of 7 shooting and hit 3 of 4 shots from behind the 3-point arc.
The two teams tied in the rebounding battle at 37 but Air Force shot a better 3-point percentage and had more assists. USU used its defense with 10 steals and six blocks to push through the effort by Air Force and get the win.
The Aggies also dominated the paint on both sides of the ball. They finished with 18 points in the paint and only allowed Air Force to score four.
Next up for Utah State is a home game on Saturday against Colorado State. The game tips off at 2 p.m.
— kalen.s.taylor@gmail.com
Twitter: @kalen_taylor