Nov. 20, 2009

LOGAN, Utah -

GAME #3Utah State (2-0) at San Francisco (0-1)Sunday, Nov. 22, 3 p.m. (MT) • San Francisco, Calif. • War Memorial Gym (5,300)Radio Broadcast: 1390 AM •  www.UtahStateAggies.com

TIP OFF - Utah State will play its second-straight game on the road when the Aggies take on San Francisco on Sunday, Nov. 22 at 3 p.m. (MT). Utah State has won its first two games of the season with a home win against Utah and a road victory against Portland. In the first two games, USU has been led by juniors Amber White and Alice Coddington who have scored in double digits in the first two games.

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THE OPPONENT - San Francisco will play its second Aggie squad this week after falling to UC Davis, 67-49, on Nov. 17. The Dons are led by Katy Keating who scored nine points. Donnisha Taylor had nine rebounds in the loss to UC Davis.

The two teams have met only once back on Dec. 4, 1985. In that game, San Francisco defeated Utah State 81-61 in San Francisco. This is the first of three trips to the Golden State with USU also facing conference rivals Fresno State on Jan. 16 San Jose on Feb. 11.

San Francisco opened the 2009-10 season Tuesday, dropping a 69-47 decision at UC Davis at The Pavilion in Davis. Much of the USF offense on the evening came from the Dons' reserves, who scored 27 points. Leading the march was sophomore Katy Keating with a team-high nine points, eight rebounds off the bench. Starters Taylor and Rheina Ale, as well as reserve Mel Khlok each posted eight for the Green and Gold as the Dons shot just 27.8 percent from the field during the contest.

PALO'S RETURN - Red-shirt junior LeeAnn Palo returned to the Aggie lineup for the first tie since the 2007-08 season. Palo, who missed the 2008-09 season due to injury, had an assist in her return. It was her first game since a loss against Louisiana Tech on Feb. 28, 2008.

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.

UNCHARTERED TERRITORY - This is the first time since the 1978-79 season that USU has started the season 2-0 and only the third time in Aggie history that Utah State has started a season 2-0. The Aggies started the 1974-75 season 7-0.

SEASON OPENER - 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 three blocks in USU's win against Portland on Nov. 16. With the trio of blocks, Johnson now has 90 career blocks which place her second all-time behind Jessica Freeman who had 127 from 2003-06. Johnson now needs 37 more blocks to tie Freeman. Last season, the senior had 56 blocks.

PLAY UP TOUR DATES SET - The WAC has announced its dates for the women's basketball Play Up Tour for the 2009-2010 season. WAC giveaway items will be distributed and fans will have a chance to enter a drawing for a WAC Basketball Tournament package that includes two tickets to the tournament, airfare and hotel accommodations. The winner will be announced at the end of February.

The following are the dates and opponents of each of the 2009-10 Play Up Tour stops.School          Date            OpponentNevada          Dec. 2, 2009        Sacramento StateSan Jose State      Jan. 23, 2010       IdahoUtah State      Jan. 23, 2010       New Mexico StateFresno State        Jan. 24, 2010       Louisiana TechLouisiana Tech      Jan. 30, 2010       IdahoNew Mexico State    Feb. 6, 2010        Boise StateHawai`i         Feb. 20, 2010       Louisiana TechIdaho           Feb. 24, 2010       SJSUBoise State     Feb. 27, 2010       Fresno State

UP NEXT - After two-straight games on the road, the Aggies return to the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum to take on Montana-Western on Saturday, Nov. 28 following a short break for the Thanksgiving holiday. After taking on the Bulldogs, USU will head to the desert to for the Arizona State Tournament Dec. 4-5 in Tempe, Ariz.

GOOD GODDARD - Freshman guard TJ Goddard has opened her Aggie career with two solid games. Goddard scored eight points in the season-opening win against Utah. Against Portland, she more than doubled that scoring 17 points in the win.

LAST TIME OUT - Behind 17 points from freshman guard TJ Goddard, the Utah State women's basketball team held on for a hard-fought, 63-57, win against Portland at the Chiles Center in Portland, Ore., on Nov. 16.

With the win, Utah State improves to 2-0 this season. This is the first time since the 1978-79 season that the Aggies have started the season 2-0. In 22 seasons of basketball, this is only the third time that Utah State has started the season 2-0. Portland falls to 0-2 with the loss. With the win, the Aggies even the series with the Pilots, 2-2. The Pilots had won the last two games in the series.

Despite being out-rebounded 27-16 in the second half, the Aggies were able to hold off the surging Pilots. Utah State had five blocks led by three by senior Nicole Johnson. The forward now has 90 career blocks in an Aggie uniform.

After a tough first half, senior center Lydia Whitehead recovered with seven points in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Whitehead would end the game with 11 points and seven rebounds. Portland was led by 15 points from Lauren Angel and 11 by Laiken Dollente.

For the game, the Aggies shot 46.2 percent (24-of-52) from the field and 36.4 percent from the three-point line (4-of-11). USU shot 68.8 percent from the free throw line (11-of-16). Portland shot 31.7 percent from the field (20-of-63) and 26.7 percent from the three point line (4-of-15). The Pilots shot 86.7 percent from the free throw line (13-of-15).

READY FOR MY CLOSE UP - This season, Utah State will be on television at least two times. The game against Utah on Nov. 13 was 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.

This season, Utah State introduces the Aggie Incentive Plan which allow fans to earn points for attending women's basketball games. Fans can earn 10 points for attending the game against Utah on Friday. Aggie fans can accumulate points throughout the season and earn prizes like USU water bottles, clothing and a USU women's team autographed basketball.

Parents of Jr. Aggies will also receive free admittance to the game against Utah. Aggie women's basketball will also welcome schools on Dec. 14 for School Day against North Dakota State at 12 p.m.

Aggie Incentives Plan Attend as many USU women's basketball games as possible and accumulate points, for a chance to win great prizes!!

Upcoming EventsPoint Breakdown for Each Game11/09/09    vs. Montana Tech    7:00 p.m. - 10 points11/13/09    vs. Utah        7:00 p.m. - 10 points11/28/09    vs. Montana-Western 3:00 p.m. - 4 points12/14/09    vs. North Dakota State  12:00 p.m. - 10 points12/19/09    vs. BYU         5:00 p.m. - 4 points12/21/09    vs. Weber State     2:00 p.m. - 10 points12/31/09    vs. Utah Valley     7:00 p.m. - 10 points
Non-Conference Weekday Games - 10 pointsNon-Conference Weekend Games - 4 pointsConference Weekday Games - 5 pointsConference Weekend Games - 2 pointsPrizes for Points Accumulated20 points - USU Water bottle40 points - USU T-Shirt60 points - USU Sweatshirt80 points - USU Women's Team Autographed Basketball

KEEP ON KEEPING ON - Seniors Lydia Whitehead and Nicole Johnson are continuing right where they left off last season. Johnson is tied for first in the WAC in blocks, averaging 2.50. The senior forward ended last season third in the league in blocks, averaging 1.81 bpg. Whitehead is tied for eighth in blocks per game this season (1.00). She ended last season in the same position also averaging 1.00 bpg.

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.

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 173 games for the blue and white and has 60 wins as Aggie head coach which is first ahead of Fern Gardner (55) on the all-time win list.

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.