Women’s basketball set to host No. 3 Oregon
Wednesday night at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, the Utah State women’s basketball team (2-0) will host the No. 3 Oregon Ducks (2-0).
The Aggies are coming off of a record-setting win against Northern New Mexico, a game in which they won by a program-best 71 points. The Ducks come in to the game following a win over No. 18 ranked Syracuse, a game they won by two points.
The first order of business for USU will be stopping the Ducks junior point guard Sabrina Ionescu.
“When you scout an opponent you can go one of two ways. You can try to shut her down and let the others score theirs, or let her score hers and shut the other ones down,” said Utah State head coach Jerry Finkbeiner. “With Oregon, it’s kind of a two-edged sword, because her teammates can score too.”
Ionescu, a returning All-American and last season’s Pac-12 player of the year, comes into the game nearly averaging a triple-double. The Ducks also have four other players averaging more than ten points a contest.
“Our approach with her is just challenge our kids, probably Olivia West and Steph Gorman,” Finkbeiner said.
The Aggies will also look to use the momentum from their previous two wins to continue their hot streak. After winning just one road game all of last season, they opened up the season on the road against Washington State, winning by a score of 72-61.
“A Pac-12 win on the road is obviously a great way to start the season,¨ Finkbeiner said.
The Aggies will certainly have to keep the hot start to the season going, facing one of the best teams in the nation.
A few key players to watch for the Aggies will be junior forward Hailey Bassett-Meacham and junior forward Marlene Aniambossou. Aniambossou has been steadily improving and seems to be acclimating to the changes that come with moving from junior college to Division I basketball.
“Our team’s threshold of where we will compete at will be both indirectly and directly connected to Marlene,” Finkbeiner said. “She is a fast learner…she has the ingredients within her that she can develop at a hyper-speed.¨
Bassett-Meacham will look to continue her dominance, coming off of winning the Mountain West women’s basketball Player of the Week last week.
“She has always been an outstanding offensive talent coming out of high school,” Finkbeiner said of Bassett-Meacham. “Now, she has the experience and the development and two years of D-1 experience. Now, it’s time.”
The Aggies will be tested more in this game than any other game of the year. It will take them being at the top of their game on both the offensive and defensive side of the floor against an opponent like Oregon, who will be the highest-rank opponent the team has ever faced.
Tip-off for the game is set for 7 p.m. It can be watched on utahstateaggies.com and can be heard on Aggie Radio 92.3 as well as aggieradio.com.