WBB Review: Aggies Fight Hard But Fall Short At Colorado

BOULDER, Colo. – One game after suffering a blowout loss to Northern Colorado and looking fairly helpless for most of the game, Utah State went toe-to-toe with one of the nation’s best programs.

It’s not just the loss to Northern Colorado that Utah State was carrying, but a recent history filled with bad losses. Colorado was 4-1 coming into the game with a record of 75-19 going back three seasons while Utah State was 1-3 with a 21-73 record in that same time. Utah State had fought to make it a close game after one quarter against Northern Colorado, but even that seemed like a tall task. The Aggies weren’t supposed to be competitive with the Buffaloes at all.

Jade Masogayo hit a layup and Carlie Latta knocked down a three to open the game, and the teams were off to the races. Colorado responded to Utah State’s early lead by going on an 11-0 run to take a 10-point lead before Jamisyn Heaton stopped the bleeding with a pair of free throws. The Buffaloes pushed their lead to 11, but Elise Livingston and Taliyah Logwood knocked down back-to-back three-pointers to cut the lead to five. At the end of the quarter, the Aggies trailed by eight points, 21-13.

Ava Smith hit a three to open up the second period, but two layups on the other end kept the Buffaloes comfortably in front. Later, Stubbs hit a three to cut the lead to seven, but another bucket on the other end negated the Aggie effort. This pattern continued for much of the quarter – Utah State would land a haymaker, only to have Colorado respond in kind. On the other side, the Buffaloes were trying desperately to put some space between them and their opponent, but every time they would put together a run, the pesky Aggies would find a way to stick around. 

The teams remained in lockstep with each other, and at the end of the half, Colorado led 46-39. Heaton and Logwood were leading the effort at the half with Latta and a slew of Aggies pitching in right behind. Heaton had seven points on 2-of-2 shooting with her only three-point attempt finding the net and a 2 of 3 performance from the stripe. She also had three rebounds and an assist. Logwood was 2 for 2 from deep and also had seven points to show for it. Latta had six points, an assist and a steal, while Mia Tarver and Stubbs each had five points. Smith, Livingston and Skelton had three points each. 

The Aggies forced Colorado off its game plan, a game plan that landed it into consecutive Sweet 16s, and forced it into playing a much sloppier version of the sport than the one it was accustomed to. That sloppy version of the game suited the Aggies well enough, as they thrive off of forcing turnovers, they lose the ball themselves, and they don’t rely on shooting overwhelmingly high percentages.

It was one of the best halves of basketball the program has generated in a long time. The Aggies were playing big-time basketball, and the moment wasn’t too big for the team. As a group, they were playing only their second away game and their first game against a power conference opponent (and a very good one at that). It was the type of half that lends credence to what this team is building, and inspires confidence about how Utah State can compete come conference play, when not facing a perennial tournament team with a direct pipeline to the WNBA.

The team was getting to the line, getting rebounds against a strong frontcourt, and moving the ball. In line with the team’s identity and goals, the Aggies were generating turnovers, getting looks from behind the arc, and most importantly, getting production from their freshman unit. At the half, 22 of the team's 39 points came from freshmen.

Coming out of the half, Colorado finally took control of the game. The halftime adjustments for the Buffaloes were too much for the Aggies to keep up with – they were rebounding with far more consistency, getting to the free-throw line and using the three-pointer. They knocked down 5 of 7 from deep in the frame. Meanwhile, nothing was going Utah State’s way.

Before the Aggies could find a bucket, Latta took a three-point shot and landed on her defender’s foot. She rolled her ankle and exited the game. Latta was one of the team’s leading scorers at the time. The Aggies didn’t score until the 6:26 mark when Logwood hit a free throw, and by then, the Buffaloes had piled on and moved into a 13-point lead. Utah State didn’t score again until the 4:14 mark when Stubbs hit a layup, the team’s first and only field goal of the frame, to make it a 16-point game. By the end of the frame, the Aggies had been outscored 27-3, letting a close game become a blowout over the course of just one quarter. 

Utah State got back into the groove for the fourth quarter and played well, even outscoring the Buffaloes by one, but after the disastrous third frame, it was too little too late. Stubbs led the way in the fourth, going 4 of 7 from the field, 3 of 5 from deep, and 1 of 2 from the line. She accounted for 12 of the team’s 23 points in the period. Sophie Sene hit her first bucket as an Aggie and Logwood added four points and three rebounds. Outside of the third quarter, the Aggies were outscored 68-62, a respectable margin against a team of this caliber. Colorado will be one of the best teams the Aggies will face this season, and for three quarters, looked like they belonged.

After scoring just five in the first half, Stubbs finished as the leading scorer for the Aggies with 19 points, one rebound, three assists and two steals. Logwood had a great game and is starting to look like one of the team’s better scorers as a freshman, notching a career-high with 12 points, four rebounds and four steals. Heaton had seven points, all in the first half, and ended the night with five rebounds, one assist and a steal. Tarver had eight points, four rebounds, one assist and three steals. Latta, who exited the game early with an apparent ankle injury, ended the night with six points, an assist and a steal. In her Aggie debut, Sene scored two points and grabbed a rebound in nine minutes.

The next stop on the roadmap for the Aggies is the Omaha Mavericks of the Summit League on Nov. 26. The Aggies will have to figure out what went wrong in the third quarter and prevent it from happening again, as playing 10 fewer minutes than their opponent isn’t going to win them many games, no matter how well they play the rest of the way.