LOGAN, Utah — Utah State women's basketball (3-11, 0-3 MW) fell to San José State Saturday afternoon at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, dropping a 69-54 decision.
"We need to make more shots and we've got to take care of the basketball," said Utah State head coach
Kayla Ard. "We turned it over 22 times, and they had 23 points off of our turnovers. We've got to take care of the basketball, that's kind of been our achilles heel. I appreciated our effort, I thought the effort was there and kids were playing hard, but we've got to make shots."
The Aggies got off to a strong start in this one to open up an 8-2 advantage, but SJSU answered with a 24-6 run bridging from the first quarter into the second to take a commanding advantage. Utah State was resilient, clawing back to bring the game within two possessions by the half behind seven second quarter points from junior guard
Cheyenne Stubbs as the team hit the locker room with a 33-27 deficit. USU dominated the first half on the glass, bringing down 22 boards to SJSU's nine.
Utah State tightened up on the defensive end after the break, limiting the Spartans to just 35.3 percent (6-of-17) shooting in the third quarter, but was unable to make up any ground, being out-scored by five and four in the third and fourth quarters, respectively.
Leading the Aggies' efforts on the glass with a career-high 11 rebounds in just 19 minutes of action was freshman forward
Lauren Crocker. Crocker's 11 boards were the most by any USU player this season, as she also saw her first career start. As a team, the Aggies won the rebounding battle 39-31, including a 14-9 advantage on the offensive glass.
Stubbs went for a team-high 17 points, her 11th time leading the team's scoring efforts this season. Stubbs also led the squad with four assists, to go along with three rebounds. Joining her in double-figures was junior guard/forward
Samiana Suguturaga, who put together the best scoring performance of her collegiate career with 12 points, eight of which came from the charity stripe.
Utah State finished the contest shooting 31.3 percent (15-of-48) from the floor, 22.2 percent (4-of-18) from 3-point range and 71.4 percent (20-of-28) at the charity stripe. San José State shot 44.2 percent (23-of-52) from the field, including 45.0 percent (9-of-20) from deep and 63.6 percent (14-of-22) from the free throw line.
The Spartans (6-8, 1-1 MW) were paced by Jyah Lovett, who finished the afternoon with a game-high 21 points.
Up Next
Utah State (3-10, 0-2 MW) now hits the road for a pair of games next week, beginning with New Mexico on Wednesday, Jan. 10, at 7 p.m. (MT). The game will be streamed on Mountain West Network, with links to the live stream and stats available on utahstateaggies.com.
Fans can follow USU women's basketball on Twitter, @USUWBasketball, on Instagram, @USUWBasketball, as well as on Facebook, at /USUWBB. Aggie fans can also follow Utah State Athletics on Twitter, @USUAthletics, on Instagram, @USUAthletics and on Facebook at /USUAthletics.
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