May 17, 2010

LOGAN, Utah - FINAL WOMEN'S BASKETBALL NOTES

TIP OFF - Utah State women's basketball (13-17, 5-11 WAC) closed out its fifth season in the Western Athletic Conference with an 82-65 loss to second-seeded Louisiana Tech in the WAC Tournament in Reno, Nev., on March 10. The seventh-seeded Aggies were led by an 18-point performance by LaCale Pringle-Buchanan.

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Utah State will say goodbye to a quartet of seniors, Nicole Johnson, Lydia Whitehead, Tahara Williams and LeeAnn Palo. Johnson will leave Utah State as the school's all-time shot blockers with 133 blocks in her four-year career. In Whitehead's two years at Utah State, she made a huge impact, ending her Aggie career with 420 rebounds and 65 blocks.

BUILDING ON SUCCESS - Utah State returns eight players from the 2009-10 roster, including two starters in guards Alice Coddington and Amber White. USU brings back 65% of its offense, including its top two scorers in White and Coddington. The Aggies also welcome back the steal leader in Coddington. Banna Diop will also be back in the blue and white as Utah State's second-leading rebound, bringing down 142 rebounds in 2009-10.

PLAYING TIME - Utah State has had five players who have seen playing time in all 30 games this season, including junior guards Amber White and Alice Coddington who are the only two Aggies to have started all 30 games. Both White and Coddington are the only Aggies to average over 30 minutes per game. Senior Lydia Whitehead, Nicole Johnson and Tahara Williams have also played in every game this season. All three have started at least 19 games this season.

PEBLEY REACHES MILESTONE - Head coach Raegan Pebley coached in her 200th game as USU head coach in the win over Hawai`i to end the regular season. She is 71-130 in seven seasons at Utah State.

GETTING THE PRODUCTION - Looking toward the future, several Aggies have garnered valuable experience this season. Looking ahead to next season, USU only loses five players. USU's large freshmen class has been getting a lot of experience led by red-shirt freshmen. All five of the freshmen played in at least 12 games this season.

AGGIES BREAK BLOCK RECORD - With four blocks against Boise State on March 3, USU broke the modern era block record. Utah State had 144 blocks this season. Since the re-instatement, last season's team held the record with 128 blocks. The 2004-05 team swatted 111 balls.

THREE EARN POSTSEASON HONORS - Utah State junior guard/forward Amber White became just the third Aggie to earn all-Western Athletic Conference honors when she was named to the second team by the league's coaches.

White was not the only Aggie to earn a postseason honor as fellow junior guard Alice Coddington was named to the WAC's all-defensive team. The Canberra, Australia native joins Danyelle Snelgro as the only two Aggies to ever earn this honor. Redshirt-freshman Banna Diop capped off her breakout season with all-freshmen team honors. She is the first USU player to earn this honor since Snelgro in 2006.

Since joining the WAC for the 2005-06 season, Utah State has had only two other players earn all-WAC honors. Last season, Snelgro became the first Aggie to earn first-team honors. Ana Pares was also honored with second-team honors last season.

White, a San Leandro, Calif., native, ended the regular season 13th in the WAC in scoring in league games, averaging 11.7 points per game. She is the Aggies' leading scorer, averaging 11.5 points per game overall. The versatile and durable White started every game for Utah State this season, averaging 30.6 minutes per game.

The defensive-minded Coddington has also started all 29 games for the Aggies this season, averaging 31.7 minutes per game to lead the team. In WAC games, the guard was third in steals, averaging 2.13 steals per games. She ended the regular season with 34 steals in league games. Overall, she leads the WAC averaging 2.59 spg.

Diop, who hails from Dakar, Senegal, earned a spot on the WAC's all-freshmen team with a solid conference season. The center ended conference play tied for fifth in the WAC in blocks, averaging 1.19 blocks per game. In WAC games, she averaged 6.9 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, tying senior center Lydia Whitehead for the team lead in rebounds in WAC games.

THREE JOIN RECORD BOOKS - Three Utah State players joined the record books with their shot-blocking ability. Senior forward Nicole Johnson led the pack with 48 blocks this season which places her tied foe third on the single-season charts. Jill Swainston holds the all-time single-season block record with 70 during the 1987 season. Red-shirt freshman Banna Diop had 36 blocks this season, while senior center Lydia Whitehead has 31 this season. Diop is now seventh on the Aggies' single-season list, while Whitehead is tied for ninth.

CODDINGTON BREAKS WAC RECORD FOR STEALS - Junior guard Alice Coddington set a new Western Athletic Conference record with 13 steals in the Aggies win over Weber State on Dec. 21. Her previous career high was eight against Idaho State on Dec. 5. The 13 steals was also a Utah State record. She broke Carol Garrison's record of 12 steals against Northern Arizona in 1981. It was one shy of tying the NCAA record for steals in a game. The last player in the nation to reach 13 steals was IUPUI's Jernisha Cann against Gardner Webb on Nov. 24, 2007. The last player to reach 14 grabs was Georgia Tech's Jillian Ingram against Virginia Tech on Feb. 20, 2008. The 13 steals also bested the Western Athletic Conference record by two. Nevada's Cherlanda Franklin had 11 steals during the 2007-08 season and BYU's Tomika Young had 11 during the 1991-92 season.

PRINGLE-BUCHANAN SETS NEW CAREER HIGH - One game after junior guard Amber White scored a career-high 27 points in the Aggies close loss to Fresno State on Feb. 17, fellow guard LaCale Pringle-Buchanan scored her career high. The junior became only the second Aggie to score 20 points in a game this season when she scored 22 in a loss to New Mexico State on Feb. 23. USU players have scored over 20 points three times this season. White scored 27 against Fresno State and 25 against Utah to go along with Pringle-Buchanan's 22.

RECORDS FALL UNDER PEBLEY - Senior forward Nicole Johnson's blocked shot record is the 10th record that has been broken under head coach Raegan Pebley. This is the third time that the blocked shot record has been broken. Ali Marchant (2003-06) and Jessica Freeman (2003-06) both topped Jill Swainston's (1987) record of 70 blocked shots. Marchant had 74 blocks, while Freeman had 127. Johnson currently has 130 career blocks.

Other records broken under Pebley are assists by Taylor Richards (2005-08) with 371 career helpers. The steals record also was topped by Danyelle Snelgro (2006-09) with 216. The field goal percentage record was the second record broken by Marchant with a 53.5 percent career mark. Marchant also holds the free throws made (262) and attempted (393). Brittany Phillips (2003-07) topped the three point field goal record, finishing her career at 37.9 percent. Ana Pares (2006-09) and Brittany Hagen (2004-07) share three-point field goals made with 83 treys, while Hagen owns the three-point field goals attempted record 333.

JOHNSON SEALS SPOT IN HISTORY - At the 19:07 mark of the second half against Nevada on Feb. 13, senior forward Nicole Johnson blocked a Shavon Moore jumper to put her in the USU record books. In the Aggie's win over San Jose State on Feb. 11, Johnson blocked a shot to tie Jessica Freeman for first place.

CODDINGTON CLIMBING THE CHARTS - Junior guard Alice Coddington ended the season with 75 steals. Those 75 steals place Coddington third in the single-season charts. Carol Garrison is the all-time leader with 94 steals during the 1981 season. Coddington passed Danyelle Snelgro who had 73 steals last season.

WAC ACTION - The Aggies concluded non-conference play against UNLV on Jan. 2. Utah State opened its fifth season in the WAC against Louisiana Tech on Wednesday, Jan. 6 in Ruston, La. The Aggies are now 2-3 in WAC openers.

Utah State in WAC Openers2005-06 L, vs. San Jose State, 51-632006-07 L, vs Boise State, 70-802007-08 W, vs. San Jose State, 68-582008-09 L, at Idaho, 63-712009-10 W, at Louisiana Tech, 69-66

AMONG THE TOP IN THE WAC - Senior Lydia Whitehead fnished the season ninth in the WAC in rebounding, averaging 6.5 rpg. Junior guard Alice Coddington was first in the league in steals, averaging 2.50 steals per game. The junior had 75 steals in 30 games. Junior guard Amber White ended the season in the top 20 in scoring. She was 10th this week in the WAC in scoring, averaging 11.6 points per game. She was the only Aggie averaging in double digits on the team.

AGGIES SET RECORD IN WIN AGAINST BISON - Utah State's 11 blocks against North Dakota State set a new USU record. Both Nicole Johnson and Banna Diop swatted five shots each, while TJ Goddard added one block. The previous record was 10 blocks against Northern Arizona in 1984.

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.

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

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.

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.

TURNING 22 - The 2009-10 season marked 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 played in its fifth season in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) after playing its first two seasons in the Big West Conference.

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.

COACH PEBLEY - Head coach Raegan Pebley finished 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 20 games for the blue and white and has 71 wins as Aggie head coach which is first ahead of Fern Gardner (55) on the all-time win list.

SPANNING THE GLOBE - The 2009-10 Utah State team was an international group. There were 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 hailed from one end to the other. Pualei Furtado is from Hawaii, while fellow freshman Jenna Johnson is from Alaska. But there was only one player from the Beehive State, senior center Lydia Whitehead hails from Nibley, Utah.