Utah State women set to take on Fresno State in Las Vegas
After a 59-35 win over Nevada, Utah State women’s basketball moves on to the second round of the Mountain West tournament in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
“Every time we play the game it’s very valuable for us, and especially tournament win,” said USU coach Jerry Finkbeiner. “This is huge for us moving forward, not only for tomorrow, but on into our program development.”
Next up for the Aggies is a rematch of the season finale against Fresno State. Last time out, USU had a chance to take the lead with a minute left, but ended up losing 66-64. In the team’s first meeting of the season at home, USU lost 67-61.
Both games, Utah State had a chance to take the lead as time ran out but couldn’t finish.
“They’re second seed,” Finkbeiner said. “They’re very worthy. They’ve won a ton of games in the last five minutes. We feel like if we can play with them for 35, our key is just can we play for that last five, too.”
Funda Nakkasoglu leads the Aggies with 21 points per game, though against Nevada she had 18 and two other Aggies, Rachel Brewster and Antoina Robinson, also scored in double figures for USU.
“We’re coming to this game feeling like we have great matchups in every position, actually,” Nakkasoglu said. “They obviously are a great team. We feel as though we’ve improved a lot. And we’re at our peak at the moment, which is the best part. But I think we just need lower turnovers because that’s what killed us in our last conference game against them.”
For Fresno, Toni Smith averaged 13.5 points per game in the two games against Utah State and Alex Furr was the team’s leading scorer, averaging 14 per game against USU.
Bego Faz Davalos is the Bulldogs leading scorer this season, averaging 12.3 per game. Faz Davalos also averages 9.4 rebounds per game. She has been largely ineffective in the two games against the Aggies due to early foul trouble and bad matchups.
Utah State and Fresno State tip off at 6 p.m. local time.
“It’s the discipline of taking care of tournament games,” Finkbeiner said. “Again, this is a group that I can’t express enough really joy with is that we really don’t have curfew, because the girls know what time to go to bed. I don’t have to watch them tonight in Las Vegas, they’ll be ready for tomorrow.”
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