WBB Recap: Utah State Drops Home Bout With Boise State

LOGAN – With Marina Asensio sidelined for the year, full strength has taken on a new, diluted definition for Utah State.

After nearly a month, the Aggies got back to full strength against Boise State, at least to the new version of it, for about two minutes. After logging less than two minutes, Jamisyn Heaton left the game with a broken nose and a concussion.

It’s another in a long and growing list of injuries this team has had to deal with. Head coach Wes Brooks admitted frustration with the situation and said they intended to run many plays specifically for Heaton in this game.

"(She) draws a lot of attention, which is good because it helps open up the floor a lot," Elise Livingston said. "Having her in the post creates a lot of kickouts for free, which helps me and our other shooters on the team. And she’s a really good defender, so her going down, it hurt us and I feel like it stopped our momentum a little bit."

Neither Brooks nor Livingston was looking to use that or any injury as an excuse, though.

"Next person up," Livingston added. "You just have to keep going and stay on track."

Aaliyah Gayles is back in the lineup, but her time-restrained return was her first time on the court in nearly a month, and 10 minutes isn’t enough time to get back into the swing of things, much less have an impact on the game. So, with Gayles on a strict minutes restriction and Heaton out in the first two minutes, it was one step forward, two steps back for Utah State. Injuries are part of the game, but no team is built to withstand this level of roster instability.

"Now, all of a sudden we played a game without (Heaton) and without (Asensio). (Gayles) played a little bit, but not enough to impact the game," Brooks said. "You take three pieces from any basketball team like that… and the team is totally different."

"I’m just trying to keep everyone together and positive because obviously it’s frustrating to lose someone here and someone there," Livingston chimed in on the injuries.

It’s a lot to ask of the team, and Livingston and Sophie Sene are being hit the hardest. Those two played well, with Livingston adding another gem after her bounce back game in Fresno and Sene getting back on track after a slow scoring night in that same game.

The Aggies scored the first four points of the contest and maintained a tie game at six points before the Broncos muscled past with a three-pointer from Natalie Pasco. Pasco’s tie-breaking triple came in the midst of a 17-1 run for the Broncos, vaulting them from down four to up 12.

During a similar run from the Bulldogs in their previous outing, the Aggies found themselves at the end of the first quarter with just one timeout, which they burned immediately upon entering the second. This time, Utah State used just one timeout (down 10 at the 2:12 mark).

Sene broke up the Boise State run and made it a 10-point game with a layup, and then Livingston found her gear late in the first and hit back-to-back three-point attempts and added another in the second quarter. Despite Livingston hitting three straight to add nine points in a minute of game time, a lack of defensive stops meant the Aggies only cut Boise State’s lead down to six during the stretch. It was slower and took more effort than should have been needed, but the Aggies did have momentum until Boise State added five more unanswered points.

The Aggies made one more push, eventually getting the lead back down to six when Sene hit a three-pointer, but needed a jumper at the buzzer to take an eight-point game into the break. Sene got the Aggies started in the third, hitting a layup and a three-pointer to cut the deficit to three. Moments later, after the teams traded free throws, Paloma Munoz Herreros knocked down a three to make it a one-point game.

On a pair of free throws from Karyn Sanford after a Boise bucket, the Aggies again cut it to one, but then things started to turn. A 19-4 run to end the frame put Boise State up by 16 heading into the fourth and final quarter. Losing the third quarter by eight points after starting the quarter behind eight already proved to be enough to put the Aggies away. Each team added 14 points in the fourth quarter, and the Aggies fell by 16.

"It wasn't really adjustments," Brooks said of Boise State’s third-quarter surge. "I don’t think they really made any adjustments. It was just us not executing our assignments."

Livingston had 17 points, three rebounds and an assist. She went 4 of 9 from the field, 3 of 6 from deep and 6 of 6 from the stripe. Sene added 16 points and five rebounds. Sanford had nine points, four rebounds, five assists and two steals. In her return, Gayles had two points and didn’t hit any of her five attempts from the field as she gets acclimated to gameplay. Off the bench, Aitana Rosello Lopez added six points and an assist.