WBB Recap: Utah State Drops Tight Contest At Colorado State

FORT COLLINS – Finding themselves stuck in the fray yet again, the Aggies came up short against Colorado State but made a statement in their loss as they stuck with potentially the best team in the conference until the buzzer.

This particular battle was a defensive one, and Utah State managed to hold CSU to its lowest score this season, but eventually fell 55-46. It’s still a good start for the Aggies, who now find themselves at .500 in conference play and a game back from that mark on the season. It’s been an even better start for the Rams, who picked up their 11th win of the season for an 11-2 (2-0) record.

The Aggies ended up shorthanded when Aaliyah Gayles exited the game with a knee injury. She played only nine minutes, and Utah State only got two points and three rebounds out of the star scorer. But, the Aggies got enough out of everyone else to work a single-digit game against a team 185 spots higher in the NET rankings.

Utah State sent a message early, and when Colorado State responded, USU finished strong before coming up just short. Sophie Sene got the Aggies off to a good start with a pair of triples amid an opening 7-0 run bolstered by a Jamisyn Heaton free throw. Utah State’s defense helped maintain that momentum early, and the Aggies led by as many as 10 points when Heaton hit a three-pointer, making the score 12-2. After the first frame, the Aggies held a 14-5 lead.

The Rams reversed course in the second quarter. With six unanswered points to open the stanza, the Rams nearly caught up to the Aggies before Elise Livingston fought them off with a three-pointer to make it 17-11. That three proved timely, because on the next play, McKenna Murphy hit a three that would have tied the game, but instead made it 17-14.

Paloma Muñoz Herreros and Livingston each added a layup, and Utah State’s lead survived a 13-point resurgence from the Rams in the second quarter. At the half, the score was 21-18 in favor of the visitors.

The Aggies had survived one big quarter from Colorado State, but they would have to endure another. Coming out of intermission, the Rams rattled off a 13-0 run to flip the 21-18 deficit into a 31-21 advantage. The Aggies didn’t score until the 5:24 mark when Karyn Sanford hit a layup. It was the only Aggie field goal of the frame. They added only one more point when Aitana Rosello Lopez hit a free throw, and the quarter turned into a lopsided 18-3 Colorado State blitz to set a 36-24 score entering the fourth quarter.

As Utah State gave its worst performance of the game, and Colorado State gave its best to that point. The Rams matched their offensive output from the entire first half, doubling their point total in the third quarter. The Aggies had delivered a masterclass of a first quarter and a gutsy second quarter, fighting tooth and nail to hang on to the lead. Based on the three-point third quarter, it looked like they had emptied the tank in the first half.

They were down 12 points, without their star player, and had only 10 minutes to go. Colorado State, on the other hand, had all the momentum. It had just held the Aggies to three points while scoring six times that amount. The teams traded blows in the opening minutes of the fourth with the Rams pulling ahead slightly, extending their lead to 15 points. With time running out and Colorado State’s lead growing, the Aggies seemed to confirm that their best basketball was behind them. After leading by nine after the first quarter and three after the half, the Aggies had lost control and the game was slowly approaching blowout territory. 

Then, with 5:49 to play, the Aggies made their move. Macie Brown got a steal and assisted Heaton on a layup, then immediately nabbed another steal, this time leading to a three-pointer from Livingston. The five-points-in-10-seconds burst shaved a third off Utah State’s deficit and was enough to make Ryun Williams call a timeout.

The Rams didn’t convert on their after-timeout play, Utah State came away with the rebound, and Heaton added a layup on the other end to make it seven unanswered points for the Aggies, and a single-digit game at 45-37 with 4:51 on the clock.

That’s as close as the Aggies would get. They would only allow one field goal the rest of the way, a Hannah Ronsiek layup, but when the game was sent to the free-throw line, the Aggies couldn’t cut down the Colorado State lead and time slowly dried up.

It was too little too late, but the fourth-quarter effort was a massive one. Forcing a close game out of what may be the best team in the conference on their own floor after losing Gayles was a significant undertaking, especially in the way the Aggies did it. After losing the middle frames 31-10, the Aggies refused to go away and won the final frame 22-19.

The last time these teams played on this court, Utah State lost by 18 points, but it came into the game unfazed and forced CSU out of its own game plan. When the Rams, with all their talent, depth, and experience, responded, they did so with vengeance, delivering what could have been a knockout blow of a third quarter. Instead, the Aggies got back up, and even when a loss was inevitable, they swung until the buzzer.

Wes Brooks' Aggies are becoming very experienced in hard-fought games like this one. Six of Utah State’s 11 contests have been decided by single digits this season, and the Aggies are 3-3 in those games.

With Gayles out for most of the game, the Aggies shared the load. Four players notched at least eight points. Leading the way was Marina Asensio, who had 10, along with a rebound, three assists and two steals. Sene had nine points and six rebounds. Heaton and Livingston each had eight, with Heaton adding seven rebounds, two assists and two steals. Livingston was 3 of 7 from the field, including a 2-of-3 shooting clip from deep, and added two rebounds and a steal. She led the team with 34 minutes and committed just one turnover. 

Sanford had four points, five rebounds and an assist. Brown didn’t score, but her back-to-back steals spurred the Aggie resurgence in the fourth quarter. She ended the night with a rebound, an assist and two steals in eight minutes off the bench. 

Utah State held Colorado State to 18 of 58 from the field and 3 of 17 from deep. In the first half, the Aggies forced the Rams into a 6-of-32 shooting performance with a 1-of-12 hit rate from three. The Rams were led by a trio in double digits: Ronsiek, Brooke Carlson, and Madelyn Bragg off the bench each had a dozen. Kloe Froebe led the game with nine boards, helping the Rams to a 46-36 rebounding edge.