WBB Preview: Utah State Looks To Snap Losing Streak Against Air Force

Calling tonight’s game against Air Force a must-win would be true, but not fully accurate. It’s only part of the story. Winning is only a small part of what the Aggies need tonight.

Utah State needs to work through some pretty big problems, problems that resulted in the team scoring just 33 points in its last outing. The Aggies are already short on time, but with a matchup against UNLV on the horizon after their contest with the Falcons, the time to figure things out is now.

The centerpiece of Utah State’s offense, Aaliyah Gayles, went down with a leg injury against Colorado State and had to miss five games. This put Utah State’s identity in flux on its own, but things only got worse for the team from there. From then until now, the Aggies lost Marina Asensio for the season, Sophie Sene missed time with a shoulder injury, Rachel Wilson missed time with a concussion, Andjela Marojevic missed time with a passport issue and Jamisyn Heaton missed time with a broken nose and concussion.

Even when they were together, they weren’t together. At least two players, Sene and Karyn Sanford, had to miss significant practice time to focus on recovery because the surrounding roster got so thin. At its thinnest, Utah State was down to just eight players.

Against San Diego State, Utah State’s eight-person rotation responded nicely at the time and came within a point of handing the Aztecs their first conference loss of the year. But the very next game, the Aggies lost 86-56 to Fresno State, despite adding a ninth player, Wilson, back to their lineup.

The setbacks have been just that. The injuries and other issues that Utah State has faced have set the roster back to dealing with issues that should be resolved early in the year. Questions of lineup composition, chemistry, player role and fit aren’t lingering from the start of the season; they have been completely reset.

The Aggies need to get back on track soon, and with every loss they add to their streak, their ceiling gets lower. After a brutal showing against a herculean New Mexico team, Air Force poses a good opportunity for Utah State to bounce back. Although they aren’t quite the same team as they were at the time, and they were at home, the Aggies looked comfortable against Air Force earlier this year in a 65-53 win.

In her first Mountain West action, Gayles had a double-double. She dropped a game-high 19 points and tied a game-high with 10 rebounds, plus four assists on top of it. Sene delivered 13 points, six rebounds, an assist and a block. Elise Livingston had nine points, four rebounds and an assist. Wilson and Sanford came off the bench to add four apiece. Asensio’s performance, which will need to be replaced, was solid. She added eight points, five rebounds, four assists and a steal.

The Aggies did an impressive job of containing Milahnie Perry, who only notched three points, one rebound and three assists while committing two turnovers. This left Keelie O’Hollaren to do most of the scoring, which she did with 16 points off the bench. Emily Adams and Jayda McNabb each had a 10-point performance, with McNabb turning hers into a double-double with 10 rebounds.

Utah State won the rebounding battle 41-35, but lost the turnover battle 18-9. Contributing to that giveaway deficit was Air Force’s eight steals. Utah State had just three. The Aggie defense did block four shots, and Air Force didn’t block any. 

The Aggies only have one win since the teams met in December: A 74-61 victory over San Jose State, before embarking on a nine-game losing streak. Air Force has been better, but not by much. It immediately picked up a win over Nevada, then beat up on San Jose State with a 76-57 victory. In their last game, the Falcons sneaked past Fresno State with a 61-56 victory, fueled by a 27-point clinic by Perry.

Perry’s three-point game against the Aggies was an anomaly. It was her lowest-scoring game of the year, and she hasn’t had a game like that since. She had a two-game lull with eight points against Wyoming and six against UNLV, but bounced back with that 27-point game last week.

Players To Know

Milhanie Perry: Although it didn’t look like it last time, Perry is by far the most prolific offensive force on this Air Force team, and one of the best in the conference. Her 16.7 points per game puts her far and away on top of the Air Force leaderboards, and she’s second only to Wyoming’s Malene Pedersen in the conference. She’s not behind by much. Pedersen leads the league by a slim margin with 16.9 points per game.

Perry does most of her damage inside the three-point line – she’s not even in the top three for three-point attempts on her team. She shoots 40.9 percent from the floor and gets to the line enough for an average of 4.9 free throws per game, where she hits 74.2 percent of her shots.

It’s not her main role, but she’s more than capable of kicking it to an open teammate and averages 2.2 dimes per game. She also adds 3.7 rebounds and 1.6 steals.

Jayda McNabb: McNabb isn’t the team’s leading scorer, but she is the team’s leading everything else. She leads the Falcons in rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. In the Mountain West, she’s third in rebounds and second in steals.

She’s averaging 8.1 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 2.1 steals and 0.8 blocks per game, and she hits 46.6 percent of her shots. Her double-double against Utah State wasn’t a rarity – she has five this year, and on five other occasions, she had double digits in one but not the other.

Keelie O’Hollaren: O’Hollaren’s game against Utah State was one of her best of the year, but she’s capable of high-end scoring and has proven that several times throughout the season. She had 25 against FAU and San Jose State and had 14 against New Mexico just two games ago. The 5-10 junior guard averages 9.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.1 assists and a steal per game.