Women’s winter b-ball: by the numbers
-6: Average point differential for the Aggies over break
During the winter break, the Utah State Aggies women’s basketball team faced the Oregon State Beavers, North Texas Eagles, Idaho State Bengals, Utah Valley Wolverines, University of Las Vegas Rebels and the San Diego State Spartans. The Aggies defeated the Eagles by 11 and the Bengals by eight. However, they dropped games to the Beavers by 29 points, the Wolverines by eight, the Rebels by 14 and the Spartans by four. This led to the Aggies having an average point differential of -6, which is not where the Aggies would like to be after a six-game stretch. That being said, it was an improvement from the first nine games of the season, where the Aggies average point differential was -11.2. Their performance over the break brought that down to -7.53.
58.7%: Percentage of points scored by Hailey Bassett and Lindsey Jensen-Baker
On the offensive end, the Aggies relied largely upon senior-forward Hailey Bassett and senior-forward Lindsey Jensen-Baker. The two combined to average 32.6 points per game. The heavy responsibilities resulted in high output from the two, with Jensen-Baker setting a new career-high in points with 32 and a new season-high for Bassett with 21. Although, the high output from the duo may have led to a drop off for the remainder of the team. Only two other players, sophomore guard Steph Gorman and senior forward Marlene Aniambossou, broke into double digits in six games. This lack of diversified scoring hurt them in their game against Utah Valley when Jensen-Baker played limited minutes.
32: Total new career-highs for The Aggies
The Aggies are a young team; out of 15 players, five are Sophomores and five are freshmen. So, it would stand to reason that the Aggies would see more career-highs set than the average team. Even with that in mind, 32 new career-highs is an impressive number, let alone the 13 tied career-highs not included in the number. Especially considering 12 of those came from upperclassmen. Most notably, Jensen-Baker set eight new career highs in points, minutes, field goals made, field goals attempted, 3-pointers made, 3-pointers attempted, free throws made and assists. Basset also set a new career-high for blocks with five and sophomore forward Taylor Franson set a new career-high in rebounds with 10.
12: Average team assists per game
In the past, interim head coach Ben Finkbeiner has tried to make ball movement a priority. However, the Aggies were unable to move the ball very effectively over the six-game stretch, which resulted in a low amount of assists. Their highest total over the winter break came against San Diego State, where they assisted 15 times and their lowest came against North Texas when they assisted on eight baskets. While counting stats does not always paint the most accurate picture of how a game was played, it is a vital part of any analysis and the Aggies struggled to accumulate this particular counting stat. There is a silver lining despite the rough stretch, as the Aggies are currently sitting at fourth in the Mountain West conference for assist per game.