Women fall to Vandals
It wasn’t the way the Utah State women’s basketball team would have liked to finish out the season.
With a 65-75 loss to Idaho Friday night in Moscow, Idaho, the Aggie women are now riding a three-game losing streak into the Big West Conference tournament.
“We were planning on winning this one tonight,” Aggie Jessica Freeman said. “That’s really going to hurt us. It’s going to take a lot of concentration and hard work this week.”
In the first half Utah State scored the first five points of the game, but the Vandals, led by All-American Emily Faurholt, were able to build up an 11-point lead over the Ags.
But after Faurholt went to the bench with three fouls, the Aggies were able to put an offense together. They finished the half on a 7-0 run and down by only four.
However, the Vandals wouldn’t let the Ags stay close for long and at the beginning of the second half they came out strong.
With a little more than 12 minutes left to play in the game, a small run by the Vandals put them up by double digits over the Ags. For the rest of the game USU was unable to break that double-digit barrier.
“I know our team played hard tonight,” head coach Raegan Pebley said. “I know they were focused and there was effort there. Honestly, I think this is a tired basketball team. We’re playing right now like we’re playing five people.”
Brittany Tressler led the way for the Aggies with 13 points. Ali Aird was the only other Aggie in double digits with 10 points.
Freeman and Taylor Richards fouled out of the game with seven points, Richards coming all in the second half.
For the Vandals, Faurholt and Leilani Mitchell combined for 52 of Idaho’s 75 points. Fauholt finished the game with 29 points while Mitchell put 23 up on the board. Heather Thoekle, who had only one point in the first half finished with 12.
But the Aggies are now thinking about getting ready for the tournament.
“It’ll be interesting to see how we respond going into this tournament,” Pebley said. “I really think we can get a win on Wednesday. We’ve gotta get a win on Wednesday or that’s the end of the season.”
The Ags have almost tripled their wins from last season with 14 wins. But, Pebley said everyone is going to keep saying “almost” until next year if Utah State doesn’t get a win on Wednesday.
We’ve got to be that team like Northridge was last year for the men,” she said. “We’ve got to be the team that has no excuses. They were going to go in and … survive and advance. Either way, win or survive, we’ve got to advance.”
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu