Women’s basketball year in review
The athletics department adopted the phrase “join the climb” last season for Utah State’s transition into the Mountain West Conference. For the USU women’s basketball team that climb was rocky. The Aggies finished the season 15-16 and 8-10 in conference play.
“It’s been a good first-year ride. Our record I don’t think shows how competitive we were. We’re looking forward to the future here,” said USU head coach Jerry Finkbeiner after the Aggies 72-67 loss to Colorado State in the second round of the MWC tournament.
The Aggies earned the eighth seed in the conference tournament and beat New Mexico in the first round before letting a potential upset of the top seed slip away.
USU started off last season 4-0, including a win over in-state rival Utah. However, the Aggies went on a losing skid, dropping nine of 11 games in the middle of the season when conference play started.
“I’m so impressed with the Mountain West. I’m so impressed with the coaching staffs,” Finkbeiner said.
The season was highlighted by the individual effort of senior point guard Jennifer Schlott. The 5-foot-6 guard averaged almost 27 points per game on the season and led the team in assists. Schlott was named as MWC player of the year and was a honorable mention All-American. She was fourth in the nation in scoring.
The most likely replacements for Schlott’s points are junior Mackenlee Williams, who averaged 15.9 points per game; junior Stephanie Bairstow, who averaged 7.5 points per game; and senior Ingrida Strikas, who averaged 5.8 points per game.
Strikas and Bairstow led the Aggies in scoring in their first exhibition game against Western New Mexico with 15 points apiece.
Despite the losing season record, Finkbeiner had some takeaways from last season.
“I just really was proud of these girls as we finished the journey this year in our first year that we were ready to go,” Finkbeiner said. “I think the new kids on the block, it’s all about transitioning into opponents, the routineness of travel, where you’re going, what this gym looks like.”
Though the Aggies had a losing record both in conference and overall, they did have a winning record at home, going 9-5 in the Spectrum.
Utah State lost seven games last season by five points or less. However they started to turn that around at the end of the season when they won three straight close games to finish the regular season then tacked on a one-point win against New Mexico.
“We’ve had six or seven games this year that have been just like [that],” Finkbeiner said, “maybe seven or eight games in conference, where we’ve had control and lost in the last two or three minutes.”
The Aggies were picked to finish eighth in the conference in the pre-season coaches poll.
“This poll just reminds me of the quality of this league and how even it is. I’m very confident that we can improve on that eighth-place vote,” Finkbeiner said. “I think we’re going to be battling for that top half. It’s going to be a fun season, we’re looking forward to it. We’re excited for January when this will all start.”
Colorado State, who both won the conference outright and the conference tournament, was picked first in the poll.
— dahdahjm@gmail.com