Nov. 15, 2009
LOGAN, Utah -
GAME #2Utah State (1-0) at Portland (0-1)Monday, Nov. 16, 8 p.m. (MT) • Portland, Ore • Chiles Center (4,852)Radio Broadcast: 1390 AM • www.UtahStateAggies.com
TIP OFF - Utah State opened its 22nd season with a 67-58 win over instate rival Utah on Nov. 13. It was the Aggies first season-opening win since the 1981-82 season. USU will now play two-straight games on the road. The Aggies travel to Portland to take on the Pilots of Portland on Monday, Nov. 16. USU remains in the pacifc time zone to take on San Francisco on Sunday, Nov. 22.
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The Opponent - This is the second-straight season that the Aggies and the Pilots have met. In the season-opener last season in Logan, the Pilots upended the Aggies, 64-51. Laiken Dollente led all scorers with 18 points, while Danyelle Snelgro was USU's leading scorer with 15. Portland holds a sligh 1-2 advantage over Utah State, including the last two meetings. The Aggies only win in the series came in Dec. of 2006, 68-58, in Logan.
A 15-point half-time deficit proved to be too much for the Portland Pilots to overcome as they dropped their season opener 72-64 to Eastern Washington. Portland (0-1) sophomore forward Alexis Gannis led all scorers with a career-high 21 points. Gannis hit seven of 12 shots from the field en route to her career-high in points. She also had four rebounds to help the Pilots to a 37-29 advantage in boards.Laiken Dollente added 13 points and seven assists for Portland, while junior guard Tara Cronin just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds.
CAREER DAY - A trio of juniors had career days for Utah State in the Aggies' win against Utah on Nov. 13. Guard/forward Amber White scored a career-high 25 points in the win. Her previous high was 10 points in a loss to Fresno State last season. Guard Alice Coddington also had a banner day, scoring a career-high 18 points. Her previous high was 12 points against San Jose State last season. Forward Stacey Howard also added a career-high seven points. Last season, she set a career-high with five points against UNLV.
STARTING WITH A WIN - The Aggies win against Utah on Nov. 13 was Utah State's first season-opening win since Nov. 17, 1981 with a 78-59 win against Southern Utah in Cedar City. It was the third season-opener that the Aggies have won since 1974.
BLOCK PARTY - Senior forward Nicole Johnson had two blocks in USU's season opener against Utah. With the pair of blocks, Johnson now has 87 career blocks which place her second all-time behind Jessica Freeman who had 127 from 2003-06. Johnson now needs 40 more blocks to tie Freeman. Last season, the senior had 56 blocks.
UP NEXT - The Aggies will play their next two games on the road and in the pacific time zone. On Monday, Nov. 16, Utah State will take on Portland in Portland, Ore. at 8 p.m. (MT). The following week, the Aggies will meet San Francisco on Sunday, Nov. 22 before taking a short break for the Thanksgiving holiday. USU is 1-2 against Portland after falling to the Pilots to open the 2008-09 campaign, 64-51, in Logan. The Aggies and the Dons have not met in over 20 years. In their only meeting the Dons topped the Aggies 81-61 on Dec. 4, 1985 in San Francisco.
GODDARD STARTS STRONG - Freshman guard TJ Goddard had a solid opening game in the Aggie white and blue. Goddard had eight points and dished three assists in her first collegiate game. Goddard was also one of three Aggies to hit at least two threes.
LAST TIME OUT - Three junior Aggies logged career highs to lead Utah State women's basketball to a monumental 68-57 win over Utah Friday night in both teams' season-opener at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
Any Friday the 13th superstitions were run out of the building early, as Utah State jumped out to an 8-0 lead and led 36-18 part way through the first half as the Aggies went on to earn their second-ever win over Utah. It was also USU's first win over Utah since 1975. Friday was only the second meeting between the two teams since USU reinstated women's basketball prior to the 2003-04 season, and it was Utah's first visit to the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum since 1986-87. Utah still holds a 27-2 all-time advantage.
Junior forward Amber White led all scorers with a career-high 25 points, nearly matching her previous career high of 10 points in the first four and a half minutes by netting nine. Fellow junior, guard Alice Coddington also tallied a new career-high with 18 points, including 11 in the first half, while the third junior, forward Stacey Howard, also notched a career best with seven points.
READY FOR MY CLOSE UP - This season, Utah State will be on television at least two times. The game against Utah on Nov. 13 will be on the CW30. The Utah game was shown on tape delay at 12:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. Another game against an instate rival will also be on television for Aggie fans to enjoy. USU's match up with BYU on Dec. 19 will also be on the CW30.
ADMISSION - Admission to Utah State's women's basketball games is $5 for adults, $1 for youth. Fans can buy a women's sport pass for $75 which will gain admittance to women's basketball, volleyball and gymnastics. Contact the USU Athletics Ticket Office at (435)797-0305 or at 1-888-U-STATE-1 (1-888-878-2831) for more information or visit the Utah State athletic web site at www.UtahStateAggies.com.
TURNING 22 - The 2009-10 season marks the 22nd year of women's basketball at USU, and just the sixth since the program was restarted prior to the 2003-04 season. The women's hoops program at USU had been disbanded following the 1987 season due to budget cuts. USU is playing in its fifth season in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) after playing its first two seasons in the Big West Conference.
AGGIES ON THE RADIO/WEB - Utah State games can be heard on KLGN (1390 AM) in Logan with Evan Nyman calling the play-by-play. They can also be heard on the web by going to the Utah State Athletics home page at www.UtahStateAggies.com and cling on the Yahoo Sports link in the right hand column.
GAMETRACKER - Fans can follow Aggie home games through the USU web site at www.UtahStateAggies.com via GameTracker, a free service, which updates play-by-play and statistics throughout the game.
ON THE INTERNET - All of Utah State's home games are available to watch live through Utah State TV via the internet at www.UtahStateAggies.com. USU fans can also listen to every game both home and away, via USU's web site.
FAMILIAR FACES - Head coach Raegan Pebley and the Aggies have three starters among seven letterwinners returning from last season's squad that posted an 16-15 overall record and a 9-7 record in the WAC in senior center Lydia Whitehead, senior forward Nicole Johnson and junior guard Alice Coddington.
AROUND THE COURT - News and Notes from around the Aggie basketball court.
Utah State said goodbye to four seniors, Danyelle Snelgro, Ana Pares, Ndoumbe Diop and Shawnta Pope. Snelgro ended her career as one of the most decorated Aggies. She had 1,043 points as an Aggie and is the sixth player to reach the 1,000-point plateau.
The 2009-10 season marks the 22nd year of women's basketball at USU, and just the seventh since the program was restarted prior to the 2003-04 season.
The Aggies return three starters and seven letterwinners from the 2008-09 team that went 16-15 and 9-7 in Western Athletic Conference action which tied for fifth. The nine WAC wins was the most won by Utah State since joining the league for the 2005-06 season.
Last season, USU won its first WAC Tournament game with a 59-58 win over Idaho in Reno, Nev.
The 16 wins that the Aggies had last season were the most in Pebley's career as a head coach. It was the third time that the Aggies registered double-digit wins.
COACH PEBLEY - Head coach Raegan Pebley is entering her seventh season as head coach at Utah State, which is the longest tenure in the program's history. Five games into the 2007-08 season, Pebley overtook the lead for the most games coached in Utah State history (116). She has now coached 171 games for the blue and white and has 58 wins as Aggie head coach which is first ahead of Fern Gardner (55) on the all-time win list.
IN THE CLASSROOM - Four Aggies were named to the Academic all-WAC team last season. Alice Coddington, Nicole Johnson, Ana Pares and Lydia Whitehead all earned honors.
NEWCOMERS - This season, the Aggies welcome five newcomers this season, including LaCale Pringle-Buchanan a junior guard from College of Southern Idaho and fellow junior forward Ashlee Brown, a transfer from UC Santa Barbara. Due to transfer rules, Brown will have to sit out the 2009-10 season. Utah State also added three freshman guards from all around the country. Jenna Johnson is freshman guard from Wasilla, Alaska, while Pualei Furtado is a freshman guard from Kaneohe, Hawaii. Devyn Christensen is another freshman guard from Caldwell, Idaho.
SPANNING THE GLOBE - The 2009-10 Utah State team is an international group. There are Aggies from three different countries and all across the United States. Juniors Stacey Howard and Alice Coddington hail from Australia, while redshirt freshman Banna Diop hails from Senegal. The players from the states hail from one end to the other. Pualei Furtado is from Hawaii, while fellow freshman Jenna Johnson is from Alaska. But there is only one player from the Beehive State, senior center Lydia Whitehead hails from Nibley, Utah.
