WBB Review: Phenomenal Freshmen Lead Aggies To Milestone Win

SAN JOSE – Utah State saw heroics from its freshman class as it staved off a San Jose State comeback to earn its first conference win of the Wes Brooks era, 70-64. The victory snapped a grueling 16-game losing streak and it broke the Aggies free of sole possession of last place in the Mountain West.

The game also saw freshman forward Taliyah Logwood’s storybook return to the court. The Oakland native, playing just down the road from her hometown and in front of friends and family, returned from an injury and played an instrumental part in lifting the Aggies to victory.

“Taliyah had a huge game playing in front of a lot of her family, her being from Oakland. To come back from injury and score 17 with 11 rebounds was tremendous,” said Brooks.

The Aggies unleashed a fury right at the tip to earn a lead, then spent the remainder of the game fighting to keep it – and at times, clawing it back. Among other things, it was a proof-of-concept game for Brooks and Co., providing concrete evidence of the team’s progress; the culmination of everything that has gone into this long and continuing rebuild, an amalgamation of what this young team is capable of, and a real-time display of the team learning to win.

“I'm just very proud of the team. We've been working hard to break through and we finally did. It was really nice to do a couple of things we've really worked hard at,” said Brooks. “I'm just really proud of the whole team's effort. We just want to go 1-0 the rest of the season and this was a great step toward doing that. And we'll continue to improve and get better as we go on.”

It was a well-rounded team effort, but ultimately, it was the freshmen, fueled by Logwood, who decided the game. Elise Livingston scored first, but when Rylei Waugh hit a jumper to even the opening score, Carlie Latta retook the early lead and kickstarted the Aggie offense. She hit a three-pointer, assisted by Jamisyn Heaton off an offensive rebound. After a few empty possessions, Sophie Sene banked in a three to give the Aggies six unanswered points and an 8-2 advantage four and a half minutes into the game.

Djessira Diawara tried to shake the cobwebs off, but all it did was shake Logwood awake, as she promptly embarked on a 7-0 run all on her own. Isabella Tanedo added to it to give the Aggies a 9-0 run and a 17-4 lead. The Spartans finally did get going and scored back-to-back second-chance buckets to halt the barrage. Logwood hit another three with 21 seconds left to respond and give the Aggies a chance to take a double-digit lead into the quarter break, but Sydni Summers kept the Spartans going with a three-pointer as time expired to make it 20-11.

Even with the late push from Summers and the Spartans, it was an Aggie-dominated frame. They outrebounded the Spartans 15-12 and had four assists, three turnovers and two steals while the Spartans had zero assists, five turnovers and zero steals.

On the other side of the break, the Spartans added five more points to Summers’ three, resulting in eight unanswered points and a 12-3 run with just Logwood’s momentum-killing three keeping the Spartans at bay with a four-point deficit. Livingston made another attempt to halt San Jose State’s run with a three-pointer to give the Aggies a seven-point edge, but a three-pointer from Amiah Simmons kept the Spartans on the run. That was followed by a free throw from Finau Tonga and a layup from Simmons, leaving the Aggies holding onto a one-point lead. Simmons struck again with another layup and Utah State, after sprinting to a 12-point lead, now trailed by one.

The Aggies fought through with Logwood driving to the hoop to retake the lead and Mia Tarver getting a steal before going coast to coast. But, they still found themselves in a tie game at 29 with a minute and a half to go in the half. The Spartans had a chance to take the lead, but Gracie Johnson blocked Hennie Van Schaik’s layup and rebounded a missed second-chance shot to end their possession. On the other side, Heaton found a three-pointer, and the Aggies held for the lead. They were still outscored 18-13 in the quarter, but thanks in large part to Heaton’s clutch three, they avoided disaster and remained on top going into the half, 32-29.

The teams got stuck in a holding pattern for the third quarter. Neither team could break away from the other, but Utah State did a commendable job of staying focused where it had shown a propensity to lapse in the past. The game was tied on two occasions during the third, but the Spartans never got on top, and the Aggies held a three-point edge heading into the fourth.

They quickly pushed it to seven with layups from Heaton and Livington early in the fourth quarter, setting the difference at 55-48 with eight minutes to play. Then, they started to slip. With seven unanswered points, a triple from Simmons tied the game. It was a familiar sight at this point in the season for the Aggies trip up at the finish line. With a team this young, that had been improving all year to no avail, this was par for the course – and surely a late-game surge from the Spartans would topple an otherwise fantastic performance for Brooks' squad.

Livingston gave it another run. She drew a foul, hit two free throws, stole the next Spartan possession, drove down the court, and scored again. The Aggies had escaped the inescapable. Using what seemed to be the last drop of gas in the tank, they picked up a spectacular play from Livingston to will themselves to victory. Except, the game wasn’t over. There was still 3:41 on the clock, and San Jose State took the wind right out of Utah State's sails, leaving the Aggies right back where they were before with a tie game.

Only this time, there was less time on the clock and less left in the tank. Again, the Aggies seemed doomed to a predestined and familiar fate. They had done, it seemed, everything they could. They started strong, led for most of the game, and didn’t give up a 30-point quarter, as has so often been the case. They had just benefitted from a four-point swing from Livingston, and still couldn’t seal the deal.

The clock showed just over two minutes left, and unless someone could somehow take Utah State’s game up a notch, it seemed certain that when those two minutes were up, Utah State would be 1-19.

That’s when a certain slumping freshman would step in. Latta drove, gave the ball up to Heaton and retreated back to the perimeter, leaving her defender with Heaton. Heaton maneuvered underneath but got trapped and couldn’t find a clean angle to the basket. She passed the ball back out to Latta.

In her past two games, Latta had gone a combined 2-16 from the field and 1-13 from deep. Now, she was in the midst of her third consecutive low-scoring performance. She only had three points on the night and hadn’t hit a shot since early in the first quarter.

The freshman didn’t hesitate. She had the hoop lined up and her finger on the trigger before Heaton even let go of the pass, catching the ball at eye level, loading up, and letting it fly. The defender scrambled to close out but wasn’t there nearly in time – all she could do was leap towards Latta, land, and turn around to watch her shot loop high over her head and straight into the hoop. As her defender hung her head, the freshman ran back down to get on defense to protect the three-point lead she just secured.

From there, Livingston needed only a little bit of help from Tarver and Logwood to put the game on ice. The Aggies scored eight points, all at the free-throw line, and six of them belonged to Livingston with Tarver and Logwood splitting the remaining two. This put the Aggies up by 11 points with 16 seconds to go, and although a needlessly chaotic ending gifted the Spartans five more points, the Aggies did what they set out to do, claiming their first MWC win, 70-64.

They weren’t flawless, but the Aggies played their game from wire to wire and earned their result. It's a pattern they'll to try to repeat at least a few more times before the end of the season, starting against a susceptible Air Force team. It's the only way the Aggies have figured out how to win, and although they haven’t done it much, they at least have a path to follow to do it again.

Having three players in double figures with a 20-point performance from one freshman and a double-double from another is a good place to start. Forcing 20 turnovers and turning those into 21 points, allowing makes at just a 24 percent clip from deep, and going 10 of 12 from the line in the fourth quarter proved even more important.

Yet, there is still room to run. Notably, Utah State did it all without Cheyenne Stubbs, its scoring and assists leader. Also, the Aggies could afford to shoot more threes – Brooks aims for at least 40 attempts per game and 16 hits. Against San Jose State, they were well behind on volume, hitting 9 of 29. The Aggies also ended up with a negative assist-to-turnover ratio, and went just 11 of 26 on layups, which could stand to be cleaned up a bit.

Still, all things considered, it was the exact type of win Utah State needed at this point in its rebuild. The Aggies executed plenty of things well, as evidenced by the final score, and showed palpable progress. They also left plenty of room for improvement, giving the team something to work on for the final 10 games as it tries to ensure this conference win won't get too lonely. The freshman played great, giving the Aggies hope for the present and the future, the veterans on the team added valuable production, and the young coaching staff, now with proof of concept, finally has game film of their team in a conference win.

The hometown star, Logwood put on a clinic in her return to the floor and the Bay Area. She stayed out of foul trouble (two fouls), and, in turn, stayed on the court. She saw 31 minutes of action in her first game since Jan. 1, and her massive first quarter put the Aggies in a position to play from ahead and stay there instead of fighting from behind. She had 10 points in the first and seven the rest of the way to help the Aggies maintain their lead. She also grabbed new career highs in both points and rebounds, and her final line was 17 points, 11 rebounds and two steals.

After showing glimpses of her potential throughout the campaign, Livingston could be arriving in earnest. She minted a new career high with 22 points, adding to a string of impressive performances. In her past four games, she’s averaging 13 points per contest with three finished in double figures. Before that, she had just one double-digit game when she scored her previous career-high of 16 against Idaho. Scoring 22 points on 11 shots requires an adept shooting percentage and a great night from the line, which is exactly what she got. She was 6 of 11 from the field, 2 of 3 from deep and a perfect 8 for 8 from the free-throw line, all of which came down the stretch in the fourth quarter. To go with her 22 points, Livingston also had three rebounds, an assist and two steals.

Latta only had six points on two threes, one of which put the Aggies in a position to ice the game. She may have had another slow shooting night, but to her credit, she didn’t stop shooting. The freshman has been undeterred in the face of what is now a three-game slump as defenses adjust to her, and pitched in two rebounds, two assists and a steal to supplement her relative lack of scoring. Denae Skelton also added a three-pointer to round out the freshman class' scoring at 48 points. The group also combined for 18 rebounds, four assists and six steals.

Heaton was the leading upperclassman and used her experience to set the tone physically, which ended up leading to her demise as she fouled out late in the game. It wasn’t for nothing, though. She added 10 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two steals in 35 minutes of action. She established a presence early with her first offensive rebound leading to a go-ahead three-point kickstarter from Latta, and she had three rebounds and an assist while taking only one attempt in the first quarter. Her biggest quarter offensively was the third, when she and Livingston fought to keep the Aggies alive as the Spartans continued to try to overtake them. They each had five points and Heaton added two rebounds, an assist and a steal in the frame.

Tarver also added a veteran presence in her 22 minutes on the court and contributed seven points, three rebounds, an assist and two steals. Sene added just three points but grabbed six rebounds and a block, and Tanedo pitched in two points, three rebounds and an assist.

The future is still unclear as the team continues to take shape, but one thing is certain: The next time the Aggies don their uniforms, they'll feel about a hundred times lighter after finally returning to the win column, unburdened by the long and growing losing streak that has been following them all season long. The Aggies, even with just one conference win, have proof of concept – a priceless commodity for a first-year head coach with a team loaded with freshmen and newcomers.