WBB Preview: Utah State Looks To Bounce Back Against Stetson

After facing one of the best teams in the country, the Aggies will have a much more reasonable task as they conclude their stint in the Daytona Beach Classic against the Stetson Hatters. Stetson is still a worthy foe, but is much more in line with the type of teams Utah State is usually able to compete with, unlike No. 11 Ohio State from Utah State’s previous contest. If the Aggies can bounce back, Stetson is a beatable team. That's a welcome reprieve for USU.

The Hatters are 3-3 overall but have only played four games against Division I opponents. In those games, they are 1-3, and they opened their Daytona Beach Classic with a 79-43 loss to Bowling Green. Stetson is led chiefly by Cameron Thomas, Quentarra Mitchell, and two McMillans, Mary and Tiasia, who bear no apparent relation.

The Aggies, now 1-6, had a lot going against them in their previous game. They were vastly outmatched and were not reasonably expected to compete. That shouldn’t be true against Stetson. Stetson will be favored, and none of the advanced metrics are currently wild about Utah State, but the Aggies won't be beaten by an insurmountable talent gap.

Players To Know

Quentarra Mitchell: Mitchell, a graduate in her second year with Stetson, stands at 5-9 but plays like she has a few more inches of height. She started her college basketball career at Walters State Community College, where she played for two years. Then, she was a standout at Chicago State, where she averaged 8.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.1 steals in her sole season. She led the Cougars in rebounds and was the third-leading shot blocker.

That landed her at Stetson, where she spent her senior year coming off the bench. This year, she has worked her way into the starting role, and is first on the team in steals, second in rebounds and blocks and fourth in scoring. She’s also second only to Cameron Thomas in minutes played.

She is averaging 8.6 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.6 steals per game. Her scoring has been impressibly consistent and she’s scored between seven and 10 points in each of her six games, entering this meeting off a 10-point game against Bowling Green, a team-high, with two rebounds, a steal and a block.

Mary McMillan: Mary McMillan spent three years at UNC Wilmington and then one year at UCF before finding her place at Stetson.

She has become the number two scoring option for the Hatters behind the prolific Thomas, and is a dangerous, if sporadic, scorer. She scored 18, her season high, against Edward Waters and 17 against FAU, but has been held to six twice. She had a quiet game against Bowling Green with three points, three rebounds, and six assists.

McMillan does everything on the court and has become a solid all-around contributor while she looks to even out her scoring. She is second on the team in points, assists and steals, averaging 11.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.2 steals per game. She's shooting 45.2 percent from the field and 87.5 percent from the free throw line, and like Thomas, she is also shooting 50 percent on three-pointers, but with six fewer attempts.

Tiasia McMillan: Tiasia McMillan is a grad transfer who played all four years at Colgate before making the switch to Stetson. She was a four-year starter at Colgate, steadily improving her game over her career there. In her senior year, she averaged 10.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and two assists per game, drawing Stetson's interest.

The 6-0 forward has made an instant impact for the Hatters and is leading the team in rebounds and assists while checking in at No. 2 for shot-blocking. She's averaging 8.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 4.4 assists and a steal. Her scoring average is down just a tick this season, but she can still climb into double digits and has done so three times when she scored 10 against Miami and 10 against FAU.

McMillan also posted a double-double with 12 points, 12 rebounds and six assists against Fort Lauderdale in the team’s second game of the year. She was Stetson’s second-leading scorer in its Daytona Beach Classic debut with nine points, seven rebounds, an assist and a block.

Cameron Thomas: Thomas is a junior in her first year at Stetson after starting her career at Southwestern Michigan College. She has had no trouble at all making the jump to Division I basketball and has been pouring it in from the field. She's an immensely talented shooter who scored at will so far, leading the team in scoring with 19.4 points while adding 4.6 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game. Her best game this season was against FAU, when she posted her season high in both points and rebounds, logging 27 points, nine rebounds and two steals. 

Her last outing, the first round of the Daytona Beach Classic, was her lowest-scoring game of the year, but she stayed on pace across the board otherwise. She had seven points, eight rebounds, an assist and a steal. It was her first game scoring in single digits this year.

She is shooting 51 percent from the field but she is knocking down threes at an alarming clip. She is shooting 50 percent from beyond the arc on 28 attempts, and that percentage was even higher before her 0-for-2 shooting performance in her last game.