Women’s basketball loses to Cal State, despite Bassett’s double-double
Another double-double from senior forward Hailey Bassett was not enough for the Utah State Aggies’ women’s basketball team, as they fell 83-to-62 to the Cal State Fullerton Titans on Wednesday night. The loss brought the Aggies to 2-3 on the season and 1-1 in the California leg of their road trip.
Despite the team’s best efforts, the Aggies were not able to get a foothold in the game, losing the first quarter 20-to-14, the second 22-18, the third 20-to-14 and the fourth 21-to-16.
Carrying the load
A common theme throughout the season has been the heavy reliance for minutes and scoring on four players: senior forward Bassett, senior guard Lindsey Jensen-Baker, senior forward Marlene Aniambossou and sophomore guard Steph Gorman. This game was no exception, since all four accounted for 55-percent of the team’s minutes.
The heaviest load fell on the shoulders of Bassett, who played 31 minutes, and Gorman, who played 32. Bassett led the group with 20 points, while Jensen-Baker, Aniambossou and Gorman each contributed 10 points each. Outside of those four there was not much scoring. The eight other players who played minutes only contributed 12 points.
Bassett continues to shine
Not only did Bassett lead the team in scoring, she also led with 10 rebounds and tied the team-lead for steals (2) and blocks (1). This was her second double-double of the season -the first coming in the Aggies’ Monday win against Long Beach University- and the fifth double-double of her career. She did this with high-efficiency, going 6-of-12 from the floor and 8-of-9 from the free-throw line.
So why did the Aggies lose?
As a team, efficiency was not the Aggies’ strongest attribute. Of the 65 shots taken from the field, the Aggies connected on 22, a field goal percentage of 33.8. Nearly half of all field goal attempts were from the three-point line and the team was even more inefficient from there, going 7-of-31, along with a three-point percentage of 22.6. While the Aggies were able to poke the ball free, the team had nine steals and forced 17 total turnovers, they were unable to hang on to the ball themselves, turning the ball over 17 times.
If more players had chipped-in with meaningful scoring and the team followed the lead of Bassett on efficiency, the game may have been more competitive. As it stood, however, the Aggies were just unable to stay with the Titans and lost 83-to-62.