WBB Preview: Utah State Meets Northern Colorado In Road Debut

After a three-game home stand to open the 2024-25 campaign, Utah State is leaving Cache Valley for its first road trip of the season. The Aggies will start their slate away from home by playing their third rematch of the year, facing off with Northern Colorado. This is the first of eight games away from home for the Aggies, and one of two in the Centennial State.

After notching his first-ever win as a head coach against Cal State Bakersfield, Utah State's Wes Brooks looked at the road ahead. 

“It gets harder now,” Brooks said. “We're going on the road, playing a very good Northern Colorado team and a Colorado team that's been in the Sweet 16 the past two years. So, we have two challenging games coming up and we have to be ready for it.”

The Aggies hosted the Bears last year and fell 75-57, but a lot has changed since then. Utah State still has a lot to prove after earning its first win, though, and this will be the first road test for a very young squad. While Northern Colorado is not one of the nation's top teams, and is certainly the lesser of the two Colorado squads the Aggies play this week, the Bears aren’t a team the Aggies can afford to overlook. They have good shooters and a powerful interior.

The Bears spent a couple of years near the bottom of the Big Sky but jumped to the middle of the pack last season with a 15-16 (10-8) record. They tend to play well at home, earning a 9-5 in 2023-24 and a 25-16 mark over the past three seasons, despite posting an overall record of 43-50 during that time.

Interestingly, the Bears have scored exactly 66 points in each of their first three games and have a 1-2 record to show for it. They started the season by sneaking by Concordia (Nebraska), 66-64, then fell to Colorado – Utah State’s next opponent – by a score of 82-66. Finally, they got a taste of Mountain West action in a 73-66 loss to Air Force.

Players To Know

Gabi Fields: Fields is a junior in her third year with the program. She's been impactful from the day she arrived on campus and is now a third-year starter, making a name for herself with impressive playmaking and stout perimeter defense.

She’s averaging 8.3 points, 4.0 assists and 1.3 steals per game this season, mostly up from her 2023-24 numbers (6.0 PPG, 3.0 APG, 1.8 SPG). Just about the only thing she doesn’t do is rebound, averaging 0.7 boards per game this season and 2.8 in her career. She’s an active presence on the court and plays 27.7 minutes per game, but she's only 5-5, and can't involve herself too much in the battles on the glass.

Her scoring is a respectable figure, though less than teammates London Gamble, Aniah Hall and Ella Van Weelden. Fields earns her points efficiently, shooting 44 percent from the field and 92 percent from the line. She’s taken just four threes this season and hasn’t connected yet, but she’s a career 36 percent three-point shooter, too.

As a passer, Fields is the team leader in assists by a healthy margin and seems to be back on track after getting only one in the season debut. She recorded five against Colorado and six against Air Force, and is also tied for the top spot on the team in steals. Last year she played the Aggies well, recording eight points, four rebounds, six assists and two steals. 

London Gamble: Gamble is Northern Colorado’s leading scorer this year. She is in her first year with UNC after two seasons at Sienna.

A classic pure-scorer archetype, Gamble is averaging 13.0 points per game, and not doing a whole lot else, adding 2.0 rebounds, 0.7 assists and 0.7 steals a night. But, she can find the net from anywhere and is tremendously difficult to guard because of her versatility on the offensive end.

She’s a threatening three-point shooter hitting 50 percent of her tries so far this year on 12 attempts. She's also reliable at the line, shooting 83.3 percent, and from the field (45.2 percent).

At 5-8, she has enough size to cause problems anywhere on the court, too. She has the height to compete around the basket, but is quick enough not to be confined to that area. When paired with players like Hall, Van Weelden, and Tatum West in the post, the Northern Colorado frontcourt is overwhelming. But, when she is on the perimeter with Fields and Neenah George, opposing defenses can get spread out pretty easily, leaving a vacuum in the paint. 

She was slowed down a bit against Air Force, scoring just nine points, but she looked as efficient as ever and contributed elsewhere to make up for it, shooting 4 of 6 from the field and hitting her only three-point attempt while adding four rebounds, an assist and a steal.

Aniah Hall: Hall is the team’s leading rebounder and second-leading scorer, now in her third season with the program after signing on in the same class that brought Fields to Greeley. In that time, Hall has found a really nice role, becoming an integral piece of the Northern Colorado offense and shaping up to be one of the Big Sky’s more dominant figures this season.

The 6-3 forward adds a lot of size to the team’s frontcourt, and though she opens up plenty of possibilities on both sides of the ball, she's far more menacing on the offensive end. After a shaky start to the 2023-24 season, she was regularly contributing in double figures down the stretch, eventually averaging 10.0 points per game on the year. She's incredibly difficult to stop, and predictably, finds herself at the line pretty often. She leads the team in free throw attempts and is shooting a respectable 75 percent from the stripe.

She will pose a real test for Utah State’s frontcourt, which is just starting to take shape. Jamisyn Heaton has emerged as a leader in that unit and Taliyah Logwood has been playing really, really well as a freshman forward. Both face a significant size deficit here, however. Gracie Johnson is the team’s defensive specialist and, standing at 6-6, has the height to match Hall’s. Allyzee Verdan has been playing pretty limited minutes this year, but at 6-2, she could also have a role to play. Hall could become a committee assignment for the team and will cause major problems if the Aggies can’t slow her down.

Stats To Know

Effective Field Goal %: One thing the Bears do very well is shoot the ball. They are accurate at all three levels, but they're especially effective from the field. They shoot 48.6 percent from inside the arc and 32.7 percent outside it. From the line, the Bears are shooting 74.6 percent, which could stand to gain a bit. The Bears have an effective field goal percentage of 51.5 percent and are scoring 1.11 points per scoring attempt.

For comparison, Utah State is shooting 45 percent and 25 percent from those same zones. Utah State is not built to win with efficiency, instead relying on volume to put points on the board. Utah State’s worst shooting woes have come at the line, shooting 63 percent percent and leaving far too many points off the scoreboard.

Rebounding Rate: If the Aggies want to make up ground against an efficient shooting team, they need to take more shots. Northern Colorado has a very strong frontcourt capable of scoring, but when it comes to rebounding, the unit seems to be underperforming. The Bears are not a particularly good rebounding team and the Aggies could take advantage of that – and will probably need to if they want to give themselves a chance.

The Bears are grabbing 8.7 offensive boards and 23.0 defensive boards per game, while Utah State sits at 13 and 29 respectively. The total rebounding rate favors Northern Colorado, sitting at 49.3 percent compared to Utah State’s 47.5 percent, but there is room for the Aggies to work here. They have not been a particularly dominant force on the boards either, but they could gain traction out of opportunity and necessity. With Heaton and Logwood emerging as a very strong frontcourt and with reliable rebounding guards such as Tarver and Stubbs, the Aggies could find an edge on the boards and find a way to get some more shots in.

Hall is the biggest rebounding threat on the roster. After her, West and Van Weelden are capable, but with four trusted rebounders and players like Johnson, Elise Livingston, Samiana Suguturaga and Verdan who can help out as well, Utah State could create an advantage. If it doesn't, it may need to rely on forcing turnovers, which is easier said than done.