WBB Preview: Utah State Looks To Complete Season Sweep Of San Jose State
Utah State will be going for a season sweep of San Jose State as it plays its penultimate home game of the season on Wednesday evening.
The Aggies have fared well against this particular conference foe lately, enjoying a two-game winning streak against the Spartans that started in February of last season when Samiana Suguturaga hit a three-pointer with 34 seconds left to take a one-point lead. In their previous meeting, Utah State notched a milestone victory over the Spartans when it ended its 16-game losing streak with a 70-64 win, securing the first Mountain West victory under first-year head coach Wes Brooks.
A freshman class headlined by Taliyah Logwood’s return from injury and late-game heroics from a slumping CJ Latta sparked Utah State’s proof-of-concept win a month ago. The Aggies claimed that win despite missing their leading scorer and assist provider, Cheyenne Stubbs. They forced turnovers, turned them into points, allowed only a 24 percent hit rate on SJSU deep shots, and went 10 of 12 from the line in the fourth quarter to overcome her absence.
Logwood led the team with 17 points, 11 rebounds and two steals, setting new career highs. Elise Livingston scored a new career-high of 22 points on 11 shots, including a perfect 8 for 8 from the free-throw line. Latta had six points on two threes, while Denae Skelton added a three-pointer. The freshman class combined for 48 points, 18 rebounds, four assists and six steals. Jamisyn Heaton, the leading upperclassman, contributed 10 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two steals in 35 minutes. Despite fouling out late, Mia Tarver added seven points, while Sophie Sene grabbed six rebounds and a block.
It was a refreshing return to the win column, but Utah State didn’t stay there long. The Aggies have yet to add another victory in the weeks since, despite several close calls, and restarted their losing streak, which has now grown to seven games. Utah State would love to reset the count against a very beatable opponent in the Spectrum. In addition to being at home, the Aggies will have Stubbs in their ranks to help bolster their efforts to hold off the Spartans. That will be the main difference as the two teams face off again, and it cuts in favor of the Aggies in a big way.
Stubbs brings 15.2 points per game to the table, and the last time she played the Spartans, (albeit over a year ago) she played well, logging a team-high of 17 points with two rebounds and two assists. The Aggies will bank on Logwood, too, who looked like a young superstar in her first meeting with San Jose State. If she can tap into whatever the source was for that outburst and play the way she did again on Wednesday, nothing else will matter. The Spartans don’t have an answer for Logwood when she’s at her best, and they certainly don’t have an answer for Stubbs, Logwood, Heaton, Tarver, Latta and Livingston all at the same time
Players To Know
Amiah Simmons: This Spartan team is very heliocentric, and at the center of it all is Simmons, so it’s worth looking at her again. When she last played against Utah State, she was six games back from an eight-game hiatus, and she was an entirely different player on either side of her break, averaging 5.2 points across her first six games and 15 points per game in her six games after.
That trend has continued, and the player averaging 5.2 in her first six games is long gone. Replacing her is an ultra-reliable scorer with high-end abilities reliably reaching into the upper 20s. She has only played in 20 games and is leading the team in points scored, averaging 14.2 points, 2.8 rebounds, an assist and 1.1 steals per game.
She’s coming off a 22-point game against San Diego State, and has dropped at least 20 in two of her last three outings, bringing her season total to seven, with one game over 30. She had 23 points, two rebounds, two assists and three steals the last time she played Utah State.
Finau Tonga: Tonga hails from Utah, and has deep ties to athletics in the Beehive State. Both of her parents played for the University of Utah – her father played football and her mother played basketball. She graduated from Taylorsville High School, where she was named to the 6A All-State Second Team after her junior year. During that season, she averaged 14.3 points, 9.0 rebounds and recorded a single-game season-high of 29 points. Her sophomore season was equally impressive, earning her a 5A All-State Honorable Mention.
She started her college career at Saint Mary’s, where she played only three games as a freshman before she was sidelined with an injury. After that, she returned to the state of Utah and played two seasons for Salt Lake Community College, where she started in 20 of her 56 appearances and averaged 9.3 points and six rebounds per game.
Then, she once again returned to California, this time to redshirt for San Jose State before taking the court for the Spartans this season. The Utah native came off the bench and played well against Utah State earlier this year, notching just three points but adding eight rebounds. Her scoring is usually much better at 9.3 points per game, but that type of performance on the glass isn’t particularly rare for Tonga as she averages 5.7 rebounds a game.
Stats To Know
Rebounding: As proven a month ago, the Aggies don’t have to dominate on the glass. They can afford to be about even, but they can’t afford to give up too much ground. That's a tough task in this matchup, because the Spartans are a shockingly good rebounding team for how bad they are. They boast a total rebounding rate of 52.3 percent compared to Utah State’s 44.3 percent.
Having Stubbs back will go a long way in gaining an edge or maintaining parity on the boards. In spite of her 5-5 frame, she’s a terrific rebounding guard and averages 5.4 boards per game. Logwood, Heaton and Tarver will all need to stay strong in the paint to help keep the Aggies even or ahead in the rebounding battle, too.
Defense: Defensive ineptitude on San Jose State’s end could provide some room for Utah State to impose its will. The Spartans lag pretty severely behind in steals, blocks and fouls, giving them a very scattered and ineffective defensive attack that is forced to be reactive, not proactive – the opposite of what Utah State’s defense is designed to do. They average just 5.7 steals per game, forcing 13.1 turnovers and blocking 1.8 shots, all while getting called for 20 fouls a contest. Each of those figures put the Spartans in poor company, firmly among the worst in the country in each.
Utah State has had trouble protecting the ball, but against a team without any consistent success on the defensive end, the Aggies could be looking at a significant win in the turnover battle, especially if their high-pressure defense can flex its superiority. The Aggies forced 20 turnovers on 10 steals earlier in the year against the Spartans. and have surpassed the 20-turnover mark five times, often against offenses superior to San Jose State's. The Aggies forced 27 against Northern Colorado, 26 against Colorado, 23 against Kansas City and 22 against both CSUN and New Mexico.
Blitzing San Jose State with a press-heavy defensive attack should not only force the Spartans into an unsustainable amount of empty possessions, but it could also yield the additional benefit of speeding up the game to an uncomfortable pace. The Aggies are now well established as one of the fastest teams in the country and are comfortable playing in a track meet, averaging 74.9 possessions per game while San Jose State averages 71.5.