WBB Preview: Utah State Hits The Road Against Cal State Bakersfield

Utah State’s season-opening loss to Utah left plenty of room for optimism.

"We’re better," head coach Wes Brooks promised after the loss, "and we’ll prove it here throughout the season."

The Aggies get to prove it against Cal State Bakersfield on Tuesday afternoon, and they certainly should. Utah State will be favored against the Big West squad picked to finish last (11th) in the conference. The Aggies and Roadrunners met last year in a 67-51 Aggie victory, the first career win for Brooks.

This year's Aggie returners fared well in the contest, starting with Jamisyn Heaton, who posted a game-high 19 points and five blocks and a team-high of five rebounds. Elise Livingston had nine points, five rebounds and an assist. Sophie Sene, who was injured to start the year, didn’t play against Bakersfield, but she should fit right in.

The Roadrunners bring a surprising amount of size to the table with four six-footers. Their tallest player, Tena Ikidi, matches Sene’s 6-3 frame. Against the Utes, who have size to spare and deploy it very effectively, Sene didn’t dazzle, but held up with three points, two rebounds and an assist. She took a trip to the free throw line and only picked up one foul.

Utah State had some standout performances against Utah, but missed out on players who will be key contributors. The Aggies had three players in double digits: Marina Asensio had 12 and Aaliyah Gayles and Karyn Sanford each had 11. The rest of the starting unit only picked up three points, all from Sene. The bench had 16 points, half of which came from Rachel Wilson. Livingston, Heaton, Andjela Marojevic and Macie Brown combined for just four points, seven rebounds and zero assists.

As a team, they won the turnover battle 20-19 with four steals, a significant win over a high-level Utah team, but with lots of room to do some cleaning up. They also blocked four shots. Maybe the most notable accomplishment, and biggest sign of improvement for the Aggies was the second quarter, when Utah State outplayed Utah and earned a 23-14 advantage during the frame.

"We're going to look at the second quarter, that's where we want to be at all times," Sanford said. "And if we just attempt to be there, that's going to put us in a really good position."

Playing more than 10 minutes of that type of basketball against this CSUB team will most certainly put Utah State in a "really good position." Of course, at 0-1 and with its history, Utah State is in no position to overlook anyone, but Bakersfield presents a great opportunity for the Aggies.

Bakersfield is 0-2 after taking on big losses to start the year. It lost 66-42 to Utah Valley, then 74-51 to Fresno State. The Roadrunners have rolled out the same starting five of Ikidi, Morgan Hawkins, Chrishawn Coleman, Maria Dias and Marley Langi in both games, but have seen varying performances. Ikidi and Hawkins have been more consistent, while Coleman can be the most dangerous of the bunch, which she proved with an explosive game against Fresno State. Also in the starting lineup is Langi, who the Aggies saw last year when she came off the bench and grabbed four rebounds and an assist in eight minutes.

The Roadrunners haven’t shown much depth. The bench unit added just eight against UVU and nine against Fresno State. Adrienne Puletasi led the bench both games with five points in each.

Players To Know

Chrishawn Coleman: The sophomore guard transfer from Morehead State has given the best performance of the year thus far for the Roadrunners. After posting nine points, three rebounds and two assists with a steal in her debut, she delivered an offensive showcase against Fresno State. She went off for a team-high of 26 points on 11-of-14 shooting from the field. She didn’t fill out the stat sheet like she did in her first game and added only two assists to her scoring.

If the Aggies can keep Coleman from breaking containment, the Bakersfield offense becomes very limited. Utah State should be able to handle the Roadrunners either way, but it’s a much easier task if Coleman scores nine instead of 26. That effort may center around forcing turnovers – Coleman has already suffered 12 in just two games.

Morgan Hawkins: After two games, Hawkins is Bakersfield’s second-leading scorer. The sophomore from Corona, California is averaging 6.0 points, 3.0 steals, 2.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game. With seven and five points in her two games, she has been pretty consistent at that range and has done a bit of everything else along the way.

She showcased that same versatility at her last stop at Hawaii Pacific as well, where she averaged 10.1 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game and ranked 20th in scoring and 16th in assists in the PacWest Conference.

Tena Ikidi: Ikidi’s presence adds a ton of size and a ton of experience – two things that go a long way on the basketball court. She is in her fifth year of college basketball, transferring back to the West Coast from Charlotte after spending the 2023-24 season at Northern Colorado. She's made 55 DI appearances in her career, though this is her first season as a full-time starter at this level.

Her experience gives her a steady hand, which has already been evident for the Roadrunners this year. She is tied as the third-leading scorer with Maria Dias at 5.5 points per game, but where Dias has scored nine and two, Ikidi has posted a tighter spread of four and seven. She is also averaging 7.5 rebounds, 2.5 blocks and 0.5 steals per game while shooting 38.5 percent from the field.

She does most of her work in the paint, which accounts for her rebounds and blocks, but she’s only taken two free throws this season. Utah State would very much prefer to keep it that way.