WBB Preview: After Facing Trio Of Contenders, Utah State Heads To Nevada

Utah State played a gauntlet before conference play, facing off against some of the best teams in the nation. A similar theme prevailed at the start of Mountain West competition, as the Aggies took on three of the league's top teams in their first three games.

After the grueling non-league road trip, head coach Wes Brooks said that players “grow up” when facing teams like Ohio State and Utah. The same could be said of matchups with Colorado State, Wyoming and Boise State. The Aggies grew up and learned a lot in the opening three games of their Mountain West slate, and now they have a chance to cash in with a Saturday afternoon bout at Nevada.

Nevada is not a team to be overlooked, especially by a 1-14 Utah State team that hasn’t afforded itself the chance to look down on any opponent, but the Wolf Pack are not on the same level as some of Utah State’s previous opponents. For the Aggies, playing Nevada will be a welcome departure from constantly playing against the powers of the sport and the league, which has put them on a 12-game losing streak.

Utah State’s biggest obstacle to breaking that streak will be Lexie Givens, Nevada’s 6-0 homegrown star who can do it all. She's been having a great year, and is backed up by capable players like Kennedy Lee, Victoria Davis, Izzy Sullivan, Audrey Roden, Dymonique Maxie and Imbie Jones.

Last year, Utah State’s trip to Reno was a success and represented one of two conference wins as Cheyenne Stubbs dropped 32 points to earn a 65-62 victory. Earlier in the season, the Aggies lost 89-44 at home to the Wolf Pack. In both games, the Aggies saw big outings from players they will see again this year. 

In the first game, Givens notched a double-double with 13 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and two steals, Davis added 13 points, two rebounds and an assist, and Lee went for nine points, five rebounds, a steal and a block. In game two, when Utah State prevailed, the Aggies got a better look at Roden, who was quiet in the first contest. This time, she had 10 points, three rebounds, seven assists, two steals and a block, while the usual suspects did their parts. Givens had eight points, nine rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block; Davis had 11 points, two assists and a steal; and Lee had seven points, five rebounds, an assist and a steal. Sullivan, who went on to be named to the Mountain West All-Freshman team at the end of the season, had 15 points, a rebound, an assist and a steal. It took a Herculean effort from Stubbs to overcome the well-rounded effort from the Pack.

Nevada is 7-10 this year and has a 2-2 record in the Mountain West with wins over San Jose State and Air Force and losses to New Mexico and San Diego State. With the talent on this Wolf Pack team, they should be much better than they are. They barely snuck by in their two conference wins, beating the Spartans by four at home and only edging out the Falcons by three in Colorado Springs. The lack of a true star could be holding them back – they have a slew of solid basketball players but lack anyone of all-conference caliber, which is something even Utah State has.

The only common opponent between Utah State and Nevada is Colorado, which doesn’t merit much analysis because of the steep difference in competition at Colorado’s level, but Nevada fared slightly better against the Buffs with a 75-59 loss in Tahoe compared to Utah State’s 95-65 loss on Colorado’s home floor.

Players To Know

Dymonique Maxie: Maxie, a sophomore from Hayward, Calif., is in her second year of Nevada basketball and is starting to see some serious development in her game. She was solid against the Aggies last year but wasn’t the star in either contest, coming off the bench and scoring six points in each. Though never against Utah State, she ended up starting in 24 games last year, and has taken on an even bigger role this year – starting in all 17 games for the Wolf Pack. She has become the main distributor on this offense, and a forceful defensive presence, averaging 6.0 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.9 steals per game.

She’s the team leader in assists and steals, coming in at fifth on the conference leaderboards in takeaways, and she has six blocks this season (second-most on her team after Roden). The Aggies have been careful with the ball in their last two games, with only six turnovers against Wyoming and seven against Boise State, but Maxie will put that to the test. She’s capable of putting Utah State over those numbers nearly on her own and had five takeaways twice this year, once against Weber State and again against New Mexico.

She hasn’t been scoring much in conference play and is averaging just 4.0 points in her past four games, but her assists and steals have been just fine. She’s averaging 3.0 assists and 2.5 steals in those four games.

Victoria Davis: Davis has been coming off the bench for the Wolf Pack, but is putting in serious minutes. As far as second-unit players go, it doesn’t get much better than Davis. The senior point guard is in her third year with Nevada after spending two years at Hampton to start her career, she knows the system well, and she can execute it. 

She’s really settled into her role this year, and her production is the highest it has been in her career, including when she was an everyday starter back in 2022-23. On this squad, she is third in scoring and second in assists, averaging 10 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.2 steals per game. She’s been spotty in conference play so far with 15 points against Air Force and zero points against San Jose State the very next game, but she has plenty of ability – her season high is 24 points, which came against Morgan State and was one of two 20-point games. It's a matter of consistency, or a lack thereof, when it comes to Davis' scoring.

Lexie Givens: Givens is the closest thing Nevada has to an all-conference type of player, and is a proven standout in her own right. She’s in her fifth year with Nevada and has been a major part of this program for the past half-decade.

She’s always been a force underneath, but this year, she has added some range to her game and is knocking down 1.2 threes per contest, the most of her career. She went 3 for 6 from distance in her last outing against San Diego State, and in a four-game stretch against Bushnell, Colorado, UCSB and Weber State, she went 10 of 18 from deep and averaged 29 points in the stretch. She's shooting 48 percent from the field this year, 39.6 percent from deep and 76.8 percent from the stripe, averaging 12.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.1 steals.

She has three double-doubles this year and is coming off a set of four really nice games to open Mountain West play, though she rarely has a down game anyway. She had 11 points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal to open her conference slate against San Jose State and followed it up with seven points, 11 rebounds, four assists and a steal against New Mexico. Against Air Force, she had 15 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and two steals, and against San Diego State, she had 17 points, four rebounds and an assist. Just before conference play, the Wolf Pack competed in the Maui Classic, where they went 0-2 to Miami and Western Kentucky, although Givens played well and scored 18 and 15 in those two games. 

She’s another really tough player in the post who the Aggies will have to deal with, and they’ll again have to do it without Taliyah Logwood, who suffered a high ankle sprain. They’ve done pretty well in the post so far, but Givens, with her ability to score at all three levels, could be a unique challenge for the Aggies.