Women win nailbiter
Holding off a second-half surge from an under-manned UC Irvine team, the Aggies held on to a tenuous, three-point lead to come out on top of the Anteaters, 61-58.
“Thank goodness we ran out of time,” Utah State Head Coach Raegan Pebley said. “It was an ugly win, but at the end of the year you don’t think about what wins were the ugly ones and what ones were the pretty ones. We got out of here with a win.”
Jessica Freeman had a career-high 20 points, 16 in the first half, to lead the Aggies to their fifth conference win.
But the win was not as easy for the Aggies as the numbers predicted it should have been. The Aggies came into the game tied for fourth in the conference with a 4-3 record. Irvine, 2-13 for the season, had only one win in the conference and was last. However, Irvine’s win came against a team the Aggies lost to only one week before, Cal State Fullerton.
“We tend to play better against higher ranked teams,” Freeman said. “They come out and they have nothing to lose and we have pressure and we’ve got to play with that pressure.”
Freeman said the game should not have been as close as it was – the Aggies should have come out stronger and needed to adjust to the pressure. She said Irvine came out ready to play, the team was in condition and it brought its best game to Logan.
UCI was without its leading rebounder Ashley Biggins. But even without their main strength inside, the Anteaters were still able to out-rebound the Aggies 40-27.
“When some big players are injured, other players step up,” Freeman said.
Ned had 17 points in the first half, to lead all scorers for the first 20 minutes. During the second half, two 3-pointers in the last four minutes kept the Anteaters in the game and on the verge of a win. Ned finished the night leading all scorers with 30 points, 18 from behind the 3-point line.
“We didn’t play bad defense on her,” Camille Brox said about Ned. “Some players you have to pay more attention to than others. I told my coach … we had to make sure she didn’t touch the ball and that would be the end of her. When we did it, Kahlie [Quinones] got a blocked shot and it was a momentum builder.”
Brox, playing on an injured knee, finished the game with six points and two steals.
“I don’t know what I did, but I’m fine,” she said about her injury. “It would have hurt a lot worse if we hadn’t won.”
“She brings us great leadership in times that we need it,” Pebley said. “Just her enthusiasm and the fire she plays with is great for us.”
The Aggies led for most of the game until four minutes into the second half when a 3-pointer from Melissa Jacob put UCI up 43-42. The Ags stayed in the game, though, never more than four points behind Irvine. But they had trouble retaking control. With 6:39 left to play, a shot from Freeman put the Aggies up 55-54. They managed to hold a tenuous lead for the rest of the game.
It looked like the game was over when a basket from Freeman put the Aggies up 65-60 with two minutes left. But a 3-pointer from Ned and another one from Usher the next time down the court and yet another 3-pointer from Lauren Yadon with less than a minute to play, kept the game close.
Richards made two-of-four free throws in the last 30 seconds and Irvine missed two shots from behind the arc to keep the win out of reach for the Anteaters.
Richards finished the game with 14 points and seven assists. Ali Aird was the only other Aggie in double digits with 13 points.
Irvine had three players scoring in double figures. Behind Ned, Jacob had 17 points for the night and Yadon finished with 10 points.
The Aggies have three more home games in their four-game homestand. They will next face Long Beach Saturday night at 7 p.m. in the Spectrum.
-aedmunds@cc.usu.edu
Utah State´s Camille Brox drives around UC Irvine´s Angie Ned in the Aggie´s 61-58 win over the Anteaters. Brox finished the game with six points and Ned finished the game with 30. (Photo by Jessica Alexander)