Women’s b-ball win streak stops at one
Getting even is what the Utah State women’s basketball team had in mind going into Saturdays game against Hawai’i for the second time this season.
Deja’vu is what they got instead when it lost 63-50.
“I think we played a really good first half (but) we opened the second half really flat,” said Head Coach Raegan Pebley. “We didn’t keep pushing the tempo like we did in the first.”
Neither team performed very well on offense. Even with the larger-than-usual crowd, the Aggies shot only 31.1 percent from the field. Hawai’i shot 22.9 percent.
The first half started with a Hawai’i field goal but the Aggies quickly caught up as senior Jesssica Freeman made both of her free-throws. Both Freeman and Pebley commented about the team having to work on making free-throws.
After several missed shots from both teams and Hawai’i laying on the full-court pressure, Taylor Richards managed to steal the ball and turn it around for a jumper to get the lead.
Richards and Ali Marchant were the leading scorers in the half with seven points a piece.
Ashley Rutledge also helped out with two 3-pointers.
Utah State led the rest of the first half.
Although Hawai’i fought to take the lead they went into the half down 28-23.
“I thought we were going to pull out a win,” said Marchant who ended the game with 11 points and two blocks. “It was that we lost it in the end.”
Although the second half started good for the Aggies with Danyelle Snelgro making the first points in the half, but that was just the begining as Hawai’i slowly but surly caught up and quickly left them behind. They answered back to Snelgro’s jumper with one of their own followed by a 3-pointer by their leading scorer Amy Sanders bringing the score to 30-28.
Hawai’i tried to outrun the Aggies but were thrown off by a Freeman who showed them how it was done. Freeman not only got her own rebound but but the ball back in after. Freeman made 11 points and two blocks for the team.
The Aggies next lead came when a Richards assist to Brittany Hagen resulted in her only 3-pointer of the night. Although the Aggies field goal percentage went up in the half their free throw percentage went down from 86.2 in the first half to 50 percent in the second.
“We couldn’t hold on to it,” said Richards about their early lead. “We need to finish a game with confidence and do what was making us win instead of playing really timid.”
In the end the Aggies couldn’t pull off the win.
They will be at home for the next two games as they will be meeting Boise State Thursday, Feb. 23 and Nevada Saturday Feb. 25.
vramirez@usu.edu