Wyoming ends USU women’s tournament run
At halftime, the Aggies led the Wyoming Cowgirls 39-25 and had neutralized the No. 3 team in the tournament with immense shooting. Unfortunately for Utah State, Wyoming’s defense rose to the equation and the Aggies fell into a quarter and a half of ice cold shooting.
In the first half, Wyoming grabbed only two offensive rebounds while shooting just 9-22 from the field. This dynamic was completely on its head in the second half and ultimately led to Wyoming ending the game with a 64-59 win.
“I thought leaving the locker room, I thought we were in a really good place,” said USU head coach Ben Finkbeiner. “I thought the whole second half we were in a really, really good place. But obviously the shots we hit in the first half we didn’t make in the second half. The shots that Wyoming hit in the first half, they made in the second half. And that’s sometimes how basketball goes.”
Monday night, the Utah State University women’s basketball team led Wyoming for three quarters, partially due to 50% shooting from three and 46% overall. Within the first forty seconds of the quarterfinal match, senior forward Hailey Bassett had already made the first shot of the game, leading them on a 9-2 run, making all four field goals attempted. Utah State ended the first period up 24-17 and was starting to find a groove against the team that knocked them out of the quarterfinals last season.
By the second half, Wyoming started to catch up while the Aggies cooled down, bringing the game to 44-45. Everything Utah State was able to do right, the Cowgirls matched in the second half.. Utah State struggled severely during the third quarter with zero offensive rebounds and only one successful field goal out of 10. It wasn’t until junior Emmie Harris made a successful three-point shot that the Aggies’ cold streak was broken.
Wyoming’s leading scorer Tereza Vitulova wasn’t up to her normal standard in the first half, but the second half is where she shined and ended the game with 19 points and three offensive rebounds. Vitulova’s play sparked the whole team into a flurry of made baskets.
“If I remember right they went to her the first play in the second half of the block and that really got her going,” Finkbeiner said. “What makes them so tough to guard is who are you going to help off of. You go up and down their stat page and there’s nobody that you can really show help for. So you need to play team defense, but ultimately you have to leave something open.”
Wyoming continued to climb in points, leading by as many as nine with a 1:50 left on the clock and once down, the Aggies could never find a way back.
Although the loss hurts — with the chance of making an unprecedented run in the tournament having died — there are positive points to pull from about what the Aggies did over the final couple of weeks of the season.
“Two or three weeks ago we kind of had a turning point and we just talked about how we needed to finish strong and finish on a sprint,” Finkbeiner said. “Many teams in that situation kind of fold it and go home and don’t respond in a positive way, and they’re kind of ready for the season to get over. That was not this group of girls and that speaks to their character.”
Harris reflected on the past couple of weeks and what this small run in the tournament meant to her and her teammates.
“I think these past two games have really reflected on what we really can do as a team and how we’re capable of playing and the fight that we have,” she said. “To be the first 11 seed team to win a first round was amazing. And we came out in the first half and showed we can play with anybody in this conference. And I know we did it for our seniors and especially for Marlene since she was out … I’m really proud of us and the accomplishments we’ve made this season.”
In what ended as the final game of her career, Bassett — Utah State’s leader on the court and in the stat books — took a moment to look at the positive steps they made.
“Reflecting on the season, obviously it hasn’t gone the way we wanted it to go. But we went into the tournament wanting to finish strong and I feel like our chemistry as a team has gotten stronger and stronger,” she said. “I think that’s what made us come out of this tournament. And didn’t end like we wanted it but I’m still proud of our team.”
Statesman Sports editor Dalton Renshaw also contributed to this story.