WBB Preview: Utah State Set For Second Bout With Colorado State
“I think tonight gave us a little bit of confidence. I know it didn't turn out the way that we wanted it to, but we executed well and played how we wanted to be playing,” freshman CJ Latta said after Utah State’s overtime loss to Fresno State. She was looking ahead to Utah State's next opportunity, a road trip to Colorado State, and was already using the loss as an opportunity to learn and build.
“I think we've got some confidence going into the next game, knowing that we can run with Colorado State. If we just bring what we had this game, we have a chance to do that again.”
Latta, of all people, would know just how well this team can run with the Rams. Her career high of 19 points came against Colorado State when the Aggies hosted their agricultural rival to open conference play. Latta scored all 19 points from the field and went 8 of 12 overall, with a 3 of 5 clip from range. She added four rebounds, which tied her career-high at the time until she eclipsed it with five against Fresno State, two assists and a steal.
"Hopefully, that same thing happens and the ball goes through the hoop,” Latta said with a smile.
The Aggies have every right to feel confident coming into this game. Throughout the season, coach Wes Brooks has repeatedly asked if and when his team will be able to compete with a quality opponent for 40 minutes. Against Fresno State, Utah State competed not just for a full 40, but for 45 minutes. The Aggies took the league’s fourth-place team to the brink, and the Bulldogs needed extra time to put the Aggies away.
For their part, the Aggies continued their year-long lineup experiment and nearly found a winning combination. Cheyenne Stubbs has professional aspirations and represents the best chance of turning a player pro that Utah State has had in years. Taking her out of the starting lineup might not be conducive to that, but it gave the Aggies some interesting looks – having her come in with the second unit still allowed her plenty of minutes, and made room for a different starting lineup that included Taliyah Logwood earning her fifth career start.
Stubbs was still on the court during crunch time, and hit the three-pointer to help kickstart Utah State’s rally in the final three and a half minutes of the game. She played 32 minutes, far more than any other bench player, and tied with Elise Livingston as the most behind Latta.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see Stubbs return to her place in the starting lineup, but the Aggies have been very exploratory with their lineups this year. Keeping Stubbs on the bench doesn’t seem like an experiment they want to run with, but it's not the first time they’ve tried it. The Aggies accidentally ran the same experiment against Cal State Northridge when they submitted Logwood’s number as a starter. They also ran it against Air Force two games ago, meaning this was the third start she’s missed and the second in three games. Interestingly, all three games have been close, and in two of them, Stubbs was still the leading scorer for the Aggies.
Defensively, the Aggies had answers for Mia Jacobs, an all-conference caliber player, but were overrun by a slew of talented sidekicks against Fresno State. Star-stopping abilities will again come in handy against a Colorado State team with some of the best high-end talent the league has to offer, but Utah State will need to be more prepared to handle second and third options against the depth of the Rams.
The main key to this game for the Aggies will be the same as it was in the last game: Logwood. In Utah State’s first game against Fresno State, it took the court without the services of Logwood and lost 74-54. In the rematch, Logwood was in the starting lineup and the Aggies forced overtime and fell 81-73.
To say that Logwood could have accounted for a 20-point bump on her own is not hyperbole. She had a team-high 13 points, five rebounds, a steal and a block. She did everything she was asked to do and more. She hit a three-pointer to give the Aggies a one-possession game with 2:43 left, hit two free twos to give the Aggies a one-point game with 0:49 left, and got a steal that gave the Aggies an open look at a go-ahead bucket with 0:45 left.
For the Rams, the key is the same as always, with the Ronsiek sisters leading the way. Emma scored a team-high 20 points against Utah State in the first meeting while Hannah chipped in 14 points – all told, the sisters combined for 34 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists and four steals. Between the two of them, they only had five turnovers and four fouls. Behind them was Hannah Simental with 19 points, Brooke Carlson with 10, and Kaylee Headrick with seven.
This team belongs to the Ronsiek sisters. They run the entire operation on both ends of the floor and are the undisputed stars of the show. But, the sisters from Sioux Falls aren’t alone, they are supported by an impressive cast that includes Simental, Carlson, Sanna Strom and the preseason Freshman of the Year in the Mountain West, Kloe Froebe.
Players To Know
Hannah Simental: Outside of the sisters, Simental is the most impressive player on Colorado State's roster. She is one of only two non-Ronsieks to lead the Rams in a game in scoring, the other being Froebe. She has done so twice, once with 16 in a win over Black Hills State and again in a win over Boise State.
The transfer from Northern Colorado is averaging 9.7 points per game, tied with Hannah and second to only Emma in scoring. She is also averaging 1.9 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.3 steals, although most of what she does to help the Rams is on offense. Her three-point shooting not only opens up the court for herself, but for the offensive players around – she has a 39.6 percent three-point conversion rate on 4.4 attempts per game.
She has only started nine games this year and does most of her damage off the bench, as she did against Utah State when she came in and racked up 19 points, two rebounds and two steals. That 19-point game against the Aggies stood as her season-high until she dropped 24 against New Mexico. That high-scoring trend stayed elevated for a while. She scored 18 and 15 in her following games, and her lowest-scoring game since then is her most recent outing, when she scored eight points on Boise State. In the six games since then, her most recent six games, she is averaging 15.2 points per game.
Brooke Carlson: Of the players not named Hannah or Ronsiek, Carlson is the one to watch out for. If the Aggies somehow shut down both Ronsieks and Simental, which nobody has been able to do this year, Carlson is right there to pick up the Colorado State offense. On a star-studded team, she's averaging seven points per game, the fifth-most on the roster. She enjoyed a 10-point performance against the Aggies earlier in the year, but that was far from her best night. She had 18 in an overtime win over Gonzaga early in the year and dropped 15 on San Diego State as part of a five-game stretch in double figures with a 12.6 PPG average.
What makes her interesting to watch is what she has done lately. While some players flash warning signs of a hot hand, Carlson is the opposite. She has gone completely cold. She is coming off back-to-back games without a single point, and her scoring has been a bit streaky all year. She opened the season with three scoreless games in a row and added another just before she faced the Aggies. For a player who is still averaging 7.4 PPG with six shutouts on her resume and with plenty of proven high-end scoring ability, a cold streak like this has to end at some point. If she breaks out of her slump against the Aggies, she could bolster a well-rounded team effort or replace one of the many stars on this team, giving the Aggies one more player to worry about.
Kaylee Headrick: Headrick is a bit of a longshot for the Rams, but she is worth keeping an eye on. Because the team is so loaded, it’s not likely that Headrick’s services will be of any use, but she could come off the bench and find ways to contribute if needed.
The Utah native had a nice game against Utah State earlier, coming off the bench and adding seven points, two rebounds, an assist and a steal in a game where the Rams only escaped with a nine-point win, and every little contribution helped. She has been scoreless in five of her last six games, but against New Mexico, another close game for the Rams, Headrick had nine points, three rebounds, an assist and two blocks, helping power Colorado State over one of the best teams in the league by a score of 69-63.
If the Aggies start to see significant minutes from Headrick, it probably means one of two things. The first is that the Rams have a comfortable lead, and the second is that Utah State has bothered the Ryun Williams offense so much that he's looking deeper into his bench for production. If it's the first, it's obviously not a good thing for the Aggies, but even if it's the second, Headrick is still very capable of contributing to this offense, especially as a role player. She could come off the bench and do enough to make a difference, as she did in the first meeting of these two sides.