WBB Recap: Utah State Drops Doubleheader To Wyoming

Utah State’s game of one step forward, two steps back just keeps going.

In their first of two games against Wyoming, the Aggies took a small step forward with Aaliyah Gayles, but took another huge step back with Sophie Sene missing the game with a shoulder injury.

“It’s about getting healthy for us. It really is,” head coach Wes Brooks said after the loss to Boise State, ahead of the first Wyoming game, but it has only gotten more true since he said it.

That was before Sene’s injury had been announced, and maybe before Brooks was even aware that she would miss time. Sene, who had been playing with a brace, had just logged 27 minutes and was on the court at the final buzzer.

In the first leg of a back-to-back series against Wyoming, the Aggies fell 63-51 in Laramie. In the second, they weren't close in Logan, dropping the game 74-56. Utah State being short-staffed was met with an impressive team effort by Wyoming, and although they were able to hang around for a bit, a disastrous third quarter ultimately doomed the Aggies.

Malene Pedersen, notching her lowest-scoring game since Dec. 14, tied her season low of 10 points. Coming into the game, Pedersen’s average of 17.1 points per game accounted for 31.7 percent of the team’s points. In the win over Utah State, Pedersen did just 15.8 percent of the team’s total.

But, Utah State struggled to contain her supporting cast. Henna Sandvik tied Karyn Sanford’s game high of 14 points, Jane Rumpf had nine, Aurore Eyango had eight, Logann Alvar had seven, Heidur Karlsdottir had six, and Madi Symons had four, each above their season averages.

After the Cowgirls opened the game on a 9-0 run, it was a competitive first quarter. The Aggies fought back within three with an 8-2 run and then trailed by seven at the break. Utah State cut it to five twice early in the frame before the Cowgirls got loose again and led by 10 at the two-minute mark, when Brooks took his own two-minute timeout.

Coming out of the huddle, Sanford hit a triple, then got a steal and a layup. Bella Cosme got a steal and assisted Elise Livingston on a fast-break layup. In under 50 seconds, the Aggies had recorded seven points, two steals and an assist to cut the lead to three. Pedersen hit a layup on the other end to close the half and the Aggies were within reach with a five-point game at the break.

Any momentum Utah State had evaporated in the third quarter. The Aggies couldn’t get anything going on offense and Wyoming took a 17-point lead by the time Utah State added any points in the quarter. With 1:08 remaining, Andjela Marojevic hit a layup and picked up a foul. She hit the extra point to give the Aggies a total of one field goal and three points in the frame, which they lost 14-3. Their deficit grew from five points to 16 points.

Wyoming’s reached its largest lead of the game of 17 points again at the 5:49 mark of the fourth when Eyongo hit a fast-break layup off a steal. Sanford responded with a three, which turned things around just enough to help the Aggies cut the deficit to 12 by the end of the game. Sanford led the Aggies with 14 points, four rebounds and three steals.

Gayles played more and better than she did against Boise State as she continues to recover and acclimate. She was still on a minutes restriction and is still getting up to speed and adjusting to a lineup that looks very different from the one she left in December (and the one she played on last week), but looked more like herself on the court. She played 22 minutes and had 12 points, four rebounds and a steal.

Livingston had seven points, two rebounds, and two assists. Rachel Wilson had four points, three rebounds and two assists. Off the bench, Marojevic had 10 points, two rebounds, an assist and a steal. Macie Brown had two points, five rebounds, a steal and a block.

For Wyoming, Pedersen had 10 points, five rebounds, three assists and a block with just one turnover and no fouls in her 27 minutes. Henna Sandvik had 14 points, a rebound, two assists, a steal and a block. Rumpf, who has been on a heater lately, wasn’t far from adding a double-double (which would have been her third in four games, and probably would have done it had she played a bit more). She added her nine points, eight rebounds, four assists, a steal and two blocks in just 15 minutes of work. She picked up four fouls for the first time in her career, which was the only thing slowing her down.

Logann Alvar had seven points and four rebounds. Rounding out the starters, Payton Muma had two points, three rebounds, and two assists. Aurore Eyango had eight points (a season high), a rebound, an assist, and two steals. Heidur Karlsdottir tied her season high of six points and added seven rebounds, two steals and a block. Madi Symons had one of her best games of the year and certainly of conference play with four points, six rebounds, three assists and a steal, each above her season averages.

Three days later, the Aggies and Cowgirls faced off again, this time in Logan. 

Right off the bat, Utah State mirrored Wyoming’s 9-0 start with a three from Gayles and buckets from Wilson, Livingston and Wilson again. Then, Pedersen got the visitors started and they went on to match Utah State’s 9-0 run with a 10-0 run of their own, fighting back to take a one-point lead with 27 seconds left in the quarter.

Gayles hit a free throw with 13 seconds left to tie the game at ten at the quarter break, but the Cowgirls started to run away with it when action picked back up in the second quarter. Rumpf found Alvar for back-to-back buckets to put Wyoming ahead by four, Sanford hit a layup to bring it within two, then Rumpf, Sandvik and Eyango all hit three-pointers, and Alvar hit a layup to put the Cowgirls in control with an 11-point lead.

Livingston hit a three to make it a single-digit game again, but by the end of the half, the Cowgirls had retaken their 11-point advantage.

Early in the third quarter, Wyoming pushed the lead to 16, but the Aggies had a good quarter the rest of the way. They cut the lead to as little as seven points when Gayles hit a three with 1:12 on the clock, capping off a 10-3 run. Once again, the Cowgirls found a way to derail Utah State’s momentum, and once again it was Pedersen causing the problems for the Aggies.

She hit a layup to slow the Aggies down as they went on to cut the lead to six points early in the fourth on a free throw from Sanford to make it a 49-43 point game. Pedersen struck again, this time with a three, and Bella Cosme hit a jumper to keep the Aggies close, but Rumpf got the Cowgirls loose with a layup, starting a 13-2 run that she capped off with a three. That gave Wyoming a 20-point lead with 3:52 left to play and put the Cowgirls on pace for a season sweep of the Aggies.

With a dozen points each, Gayles and Sanford led the way for the Aggies. Gayles added two rebounds, five assists and three steals, while Sanford notched with rebounds, four assists and a steal. With seven points apiece, Livingston and Herreros were next up for Utah State. Livingston had six rebounds, an assist and a steal, and Herreros had a rebound.

Rachel Wilson had five points, three rebounds, and a steal. Sene came off the bench and played 15 minutes for five points and a rebound. Macie Brown added four points and a steal.

She hasn’t done so all year, so Pedersen can’t be counted on to score as few as 10 points in consecutive games. Though she didn’t look it in game one, she is still the star of this Wyoming team, and she proved it in game two. She went 7-of-11 shooting from the field, 1-of-2 from deep and 2-of-2 from the line to bounce back with 17 points, four rebounds and two assists. 

Rumpf continued her hot streak and added 16 points, four rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block. Sandvik, the transfer from Indiana, has had plenty of good games as a Cowgirl, including a season high of 21 points against San Jose State. She recorded 18 against Nevada, completing her second back-to-back double-digit scoring games of the year, but she was in a lull since then, scoring seven twice, then five. With 14 points, a rebound, two assists, a steal and a block, the Aggies let her get back on track just in time for the rematch and paid the price for it. In Logan, she had eight points, six rebounds, four assists and a block. Alvar had 12 points and six rebounds, and Eyango posted a season high 13 points with a rebound, four assists and two steals.