WBB Recap: Aggies Overwhelmed At Fresno State

FRESNO – Wes Brooks called three timeouts in the first quarter trying to jumpstart his Aggie team, and when that didn’t work, he burned his final one in the early minutes of the second quarter. It was just that kind of night for the Aggies, who have struggled on the road and suffered through inconsistency without their stars, Aaliyah Gayles and Marina Asensio, anchoring the lineup. The Bulldogs took advantage of both of those trends and had no trouble putting the Aggies away, 86-56.

Utah State scored first with a bucket from Jamisyn Heaton, and when the Bulldogs hit a three-pointer, Elise Livingston responded in kind, and the Aggies held a 5-3 lead after their first two possessions. Things started to come apart when the Bulldogs scored six unanswered points to take control with a four-point lead. Brooks stepped in to try to get ahead of disaster and called a timeout with 6:18 on the clock, leaving the Aggies with three timeouts.

Utah State had the ball out of the timeout, but not for long. The Aggies immediately turned it over, and with 6:09 on the clock, Brooks called another timeout and subbed out four of the five players on the court. Two timeouts left. 

The Aggies matched the next two Bulldog buckets to keep it a four-point game for another three minutes, but Fresno State uncorked a 9-1 run to take a 12-point lead with no signs of slowing down. This forced Brooks into calling another timeout, his third, with 1:27 left in the first quarter. One timeout left.

Utah State took two off the Bulldog lead by the end of the frame and trailed 24-14, but the Bulldogs started the second quarter with a 9-0 run. The only reliable way the Aggies had found to stop the Bulldogs was to force a break in the action, and with the Bulldogs getting loose in a hurry, that’s exactly what they did. Coach Brooks called his fourth and final timeout, ensuring at least a 30-second respite from Fresno State’s barrage of points.

He made four substitutions while he was at it, and then he sent his team back out to fend for themselves. There was 7:57 left to play in the first half, no timeouts left, down by 19.The last-ditch effort to kickstart his team paid a modest dividend. It stopped Utah State’s free fall, and two Aggie buckets cut the lead to 15. It was a short-lived shift of momentum as Emilia Long hit a three-pointer and Jaisa Gamble got a second-chance jumper to go, and suddenly the Aggies were down by 20.

Being out of timeouts and down by 20 with over two minutes to play in the first half is a pretty unambiguous sentencing, and it’s exactly where the Aggies found themselves. Even with a full roster, that’s a herculean task. With Utah State’s nine players, the effort needed to mount a significant comeback would have left them out of gas before they could pull it off anyway, and Utah State was almost assuredly doomed.

The Aggies slowly succumbed to their slow start, trailing by as many as 28 in the third quarter and going on to cross the unsavory 30-point deficit milestone moments before the final buzzer.

The team’s blowout loss left plenty to be desired, but by the end of the night, Utah State had some individual performances that offered hope. 

Utah State’s search for an identity has been obstructed by injuries, which has only made that task even more crucial for the Aggies. Livingston and Heaton both stepped up and answered the call in Fresno with Karyn Sanford right behind, offering valuable support. Performances like those will be paramount until and after the Aggies start to add players like Gayles back to the rotation. 

Livingston, who had been in a slump lately, broke out and went 5 of 8 from the field and 3 of 4 from range to drop 16 points, topping her 15-point game against Omaha for a new season high. It was her first double-digit game since she scored 10 against Stanislaus State and her third all year, and was her highest-scoring game since her career high of 22 at San Jose State last season.

Heaton had 15 points, four rebounds and a block. She flew pretty close to the sun with four fouls, but still logged a team-high of 32 minutes. Sanford had eight points on a 3-of-8 shooting night without taking a three. She also notched four rebounds, three assists, a block and two steals. 

Paloma Munoz Herreros put together a nice game too, and the freshman seems to have found a role for herself on this iteration of the team. She recorded six points to follow back-to-back double-digit performances. She is averaging 10.3 points per game in her last three outings. She added two rebounds, an assist and a steal against Fresno State.

Rachel Wilson returned after making a recovery from a concussion and in 12 minutes of action, was true to form and proved to be the same high-energy physical player she was before. She picked up three points and three rebounds, with three fouls for good measure. 

Sophie Sene was quiet in terms of scoring, she had just four points which is well below her current average of 9.4, but she had eight rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal, without turning the ball over while picking up just one personal foul. Outside of her low scoring, it was a winning performance – that many boards while recording both blocks and steals and staying out of foul trouble is a hard thing to do – but she has become one of the scoring leaders on the team and needs to get back on track offensively.

The Aggies now turn their attention back home, where they have played much better this season, to host the Boise State Broncos on Saturday night.