Jan. 29, 2011

Box Score | Photo Gallery

LOGAN, Utah - On a night when Utah State women's basketball was supporting the relief efforts from the recent flooding in Australia, one of the Aggie Australians had a career night as junior forward Maddy Plunkett netted a career-high 10 points to lead USU to a 72-57 win over San Jose State Saturday night.

The Aggies won their second in a row and evened their record at 10-10 while improving to 4-3 in Western Athletic Conference play. SJSU lost its second-straight game in falling to 2-18 overall and 2-5 in WAC action. Saturday was Utah State's seventh-consecutive win over San Jose State and the Aggies now hold an 8-4 all-time advantage over the Spartans, including 8-3 as WAC foes, winning eight of the last nine meetings after SJSU had won the first two conference match-ups as part of the first three overall.

Saturday was the Aggies' third-straight win at home and fourth in the last five, improving to 4-1 in league home games and 7-5 overall in the friendly confines of the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.

Plunkett, one of three Australians on the USU squad, had a career night in a game that the Aggies were donating half of the proceeds to the International Red Cross to aid in relief efforts from the flooding in Australia. Along with Plunkett, senior guard Alice Coddington and senior forward Stacey Howard are all from Australia, and sported Aussie tatoos on their left shoulders.

In playing a career-high 20 minutes, Plunkett more than doubled her previous career-high of four points. Plunkett scored eight of her 10 point in the second half, including hitting the first two three-pointers of her USU career on back-to-back Aggie possessions to boost USU to its largest lead of the night at 55-31 at the 12:08 mark of the second half.

Also netting double-figures for USU was sophomore guard Devyn Christensen, who made her first career start Saturday night, and made it worthy by tallying a game-high 18 points, hitting two three-pointers and all six of her free throw attempts. Sophomore forward Banna Diop was the third Aggie in double-digits with 16 points. Senior guard Amber White pulled down a team-high five rebounds. Coddington and sophomore guard Jenna Johnson dished out six assists each, part of USU's 20 helpers, its second-highest this season.

SJSU had four players in double-figures, led by Sara Plavljanin with 15 points while Marnesha Hall and Sayja Sumler added 12 points apiece. AJ Newton chipped in with 10 points. Sumler pulled down a game-best nine rebounds while Plavljanin added seven boards, as the Spartans had a 36-28 rebounding advantage, and the Aggies improved to 6-8 when getting out-rebounded by the opposition.

Leading 23-17, USU pulled away to open a 35-22 lead at the half as sophomore guard Chelsea Burns hit a three-pointer from the corner in the waning seconds of the half for the second game in a row. The Aggies stretched their lead to 45-27 on a trey by Christensen from the right wing with 14:42 on the clock and Plunkett later drained her back-to-back three-pointers from nearly the same spot for USU's big lead. The Spartans mounted a comeback, closing to 64-56 with 2:49 left as Myesha Broaden capped a 12-4 SJSU spurt. However, the Aggies held off the rally by limiting the Spartans to only one point from there on out and hit 6-of-8 at the free throw line during that same span to seal the win.

Utah State made more free throws than San Jose State attempted, as the Aggies were 14-of-23 (60.9 percent) while the Spartans were 6-of-9 (66.7 percent). It was the ninth time this season that USU has done so, improving to 7-2.

USU shot 54.2 percent (26-of-48) from the field, hitting 6-of-15 (40.0 percent) from three-point range. The six treys is tied for the second-most this season for the Aggies. The Spartans were 23-of-57 (40.4 percent) field goal shooting, making 5-of-21 (23.8 percent) of their three-pointers. Plunkett's scoring helped the Aggies' bench to a 23-4 bench scoring edge as well.

For the second-straight game and the eighth time this season, the USU defense forced 20 or more turnovers, causing 23 SJSU miscues Saturday while committing 18 themselves, leading to a 28-18 points off turnovers for USU. The Utah State defense also swiped 16 steals, its 10th double-digit steals outing, as Coddington and freshman guard Jennifer Schlott had three steals each, two of six Aggies with multiple swipes.

Now with 207 career steals, Coddington is closing in on the school record of 216 swipes held by former USU player and current Aggie assistant coach Danyelle Snelgro (2005-08).

Utah State also had seven blocks Saturday night, its eighth game with five or more rejections, while San Jose State had three swats. Christensen led the way with a team-high and career-best tying two blocks.

The Aggies hit the road for a two-game stretch, playing Nevada on Thursday, Feb. 3 at Reno, Nev. at 8 p.m. (MT), before heading to Boise, Idaho to face Boise State on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. (MT). USU returns home to host Idaho on Thursday, Feb. 10 at 7 p.m.

To purchase tickets, or for more Aggie basketball ticket information, fans can contact the USU Ticket Office at 1-888-USTATE-1 or 435-797-0305, in person at the USU Ticket Office inside the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, or on-line 24 hours a day at www.utahstateaggies.com under the "tickets" drop down menu.

Fans can follow USU women's basketball and Coach Pebley on Twitter at http://twitter.com/UTAHSTATEofmind and Utah State Athletics at http://twitter.com/USUAthletics.