WBB Preview: Back On The Road, Utah State Takes On Fresno State

For two teams with identical 2-4 records in conference play, the Bulldogs and Aggies have a lot to play for. The stakes are high as both squads have found themselves at a pivotal moment that could define their seasons. 

Both teams are in the middle of the pack in the league, but are teetering on a worse fate. On the other hand, both teams have a lot of untapped potential and they both want to live long enough to give themselves a chance to chase that. 

Both teams have lost three of their last four and the Aggies are on a three-game losing streak. Fresno State is playing to get to .500 while Utah State is playing to get within one game of that mark.

Utah State’s roster has been decimated by injuries, but Fresno State isn’t immune. Ashlyn Rean, Fresno State star transfer forward, is out and expected to miss the remainder of the season with an MCL injury. She played in six games for the Bulldogs and averaged 12.7 points, seven rebounds, and 1.3 steals.

Both teams are missing their leading scorer. Between the two teams, five players average double figures, and only two of them will be active. Both of them are Bulldogs: Emilia Long and Danae Powell.

Utah State is in worse shape. Rachel Wilson has cleared concussion protocol and will be available against the Bulldogs, but the Aggies will still be without significant contributions from Aaliyah Gayles, Marina Asensio and Andjela Marojevic. 

It has still been a rough stretch for Fresno State. Leading the way in both Bulldogs wins last year was Mia Jacobs, who Utah State met earlier this year when it played her new team: the Oregon Ducks. 

Jacobs was the biggest, but it was only one of many high-profile departures for the Bulldogs. Two players kept their talents in the conference, and Mariah Elohim is now averaging 6.9 points per game for the UNLV Lady Rebels, while Maria Konstantinidou moved five hours down the road to San Diego State. Kylee Fox went to Santa Clara, Taija Sta. Maria went to Pepperdine and Saga Ukkonen graduated. 

Those six players accounted for the vast majority of the team’s production, and the only returning contributor is Powell. 

So it will be two new-look teams without their leading scorer when the Aggies and Bulldogs take the court in Fresno. The Bulldogs were ravaged in the offseason but, outside of Rean, are much more healthy than the Aggies. Utah State also had a lot of offseason turnover but returned a reliable trio in Sophie Sene, Jamisyn Heaton and Elise Livingston.

Players To Know

Danae Powell: Powell was a nice contributor as a freshman last year but has turned into one of the team’s stars since she decided to stick in the Valley. She saw action in 28 games with two starts last season and averaged 19.9 minutes, 5.2 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 1.5 assists. 

In her second season, she has started in all 17 games for an average of 31.8 minutes. She is scoring 10.8 points per game, going 41% from the field, 43.1% from deep, and 78.4% from the free-throw line, and adds 3.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.6 steals per outing. 

She is taking 9.5 shots per game, three of them from beyond the arc, and she has a higher clip from deep than she does from the field. 

She and Ava Marr combine as the team’s three-point shooting tandem, which is responsible for 46 of the team’s 75 made triples. Powell has netted 22 while Marr has hit 24 and is shooting 32.9% from deep. 

The only other player with double-digit makes from deep is Long, who has 12 on 40 attempts. After that is Watkins, who is seven of 15 on the year. 

Powell can also get herself to the line and, other than Avery Watkins, is the team’s leader in free-throw attempts. She is also a reliable distributor and defender and is third on the team in both assists and steals. 

Emilia Long: The playmaking senior guard has become the backbone of Fresno State’s gameplay on both sides of the ball. She is leading the conference in steals and is behind only Boise State’s Mya Hansen in assets. In the wake of Rean’s absence, Long has been the most reliable high-end scorer. 

She got off to a bit of a slow start. She averaged 9.2 points per game in the six games that Rean played in, but that figure is heavily influenced by a 21-point game against Seattle and a 14-point game against Fresno Pacific. Outside of that, she posted just nine, five, four, and two. 

In the four games immediately following Rean’s departure, she averaged 19.5. She posted a new season high of 22 and the next game surpassed it with 23, which still stands. 

She has also been more consistent. After her first six games, she had three eight-point games, which has come to represent sort of a floor for her scoring performances. 

After three games below that mark in her first six, she has dipped below it just once with a four-game point against San Diego State. 

On the year, she is averaging 12.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.6 steals. 

Jaisa Gamble: Gamble is one of five six-footers on the roster (six, if you include the 6-2 Rean), but is one of only two with regular playing time and contributions, along with Avery Watkins. 

Six-foot-three Djessira Diawara, the transfer from San Jose State, and six-foot-two Hedda Koehne are both rotational players as well, but their playing time and performance vary quite a bit. The main players in this group are Watkins and Gamble. Both are formidable, and Watkins actually has the edge on the boards, where she grabs a team high 4.9, but Gamble has the edge in most other categories. 

She leads the team with 33.3 minutes per game and is averaging 8.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.9 steals. She also leads the team in blocks with a 0.6 average. She has a season high of 18 points, but a season low of two against San Jose State. That particular game followed a three-point game against Colorado State, showing her high ceiling and low floor. She is coming off a 14-point game against Grand Canyon and back-to-back six-rebound games. 

She is prone to putting up unreliable numbers on offense, but even if she is on an off night, she can still cause problems on the other side of the floor, where she can alter a team’s offensive game plan. Her season high in swats is three, and her season high in steals is five.

At 6-0, she boasts an impressive post presence, but outplaying her frame comes at a cost, and she is also prone to getting in foul trouble. She has already fouled out twice in conference play and three times all year and had another three games with four fouls.