Utah State University's women's basketball team fought hard against California State University at Northridge for all four quarters, but ultimately came up short as the Matadors edged out the Aggies 69-65 at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
It was a mix of emotions for USU head coach Wesley Brooks in the moments following his team’s second regular season loss in their first two games on Friday night. And even though the Aggies fought hard throughout the game and competed till the very end, he was still disappointed and will head to the drawing board for a solution.
“We did a pretty good job guarding them, holding them to 21% from three and 36% from the field,” Brooks said. “But guess what? You can guard at the free throw line, so we've got to do a better job of defending without fouling, and we'll coach that better.”
The Aggies had a hard time capitalizing as they shot 11-47 from three and 12-17 from the charity stripe. This is another piece Brooks intends on working on in practice.
“We've been doing a free throw game in practice, and every time we don't get 75%, we run a sweet 16, which is lines back,” Brooks said. “So we're working on it, and we're holding them accountable to it, but we have to produce it in the game.”
Aggie Guard Jamisyn Heaton spoke with the media after the loss, which is an uncommon occurrence — normally, the USU Athletics Department’s rule is to withhold player interviews after a loss.
“Coach has a style of play, and I felt like we could have executed it better tonight,” Heaton said. “Our shooting obviously was not amazing. Our defense, I feel like, is what's keeping us back from being the best team we could be, and then giving up some offensive rebounds as well.”
Heaton, who provided 14 points in 23 minutes of playtime, added the team strives to keep a good mentality each day and wants to prove they have what it takes to compete and win games.
“So we're still fighting and we're still working,” Heaton said. “We know we can be a better team than what we've been performing, but we've just got to take these two games as motivation and build from there.”
Following the Aggies' home game against California State, Bakersfield on Nov. 14, the Aggies will be on the road for the next eight games before they see the Spectrum again on Dec. 18.
