Aggies find success then defeat at the MWC tournament

Utah State's women's basketball team came into the Mountain West Championship with a 10-8 conference record and a 15-14 overall record in their regular season, ranking 6th in the Mountain West Conference. Utah State played its first game of the tournament Sunday night and took home a 62-59 win against the Colorado State Rams. The Aggies' tournament run came to an end with a loss to the Wyoming Cowgirls in the quarterfinals on Monday night.

Utah State University women's basketball escapes with a 62-59 win over Colorado State

Riding a season-best four game win streak, the Aggies faced Colorado State in the opening round of the tournament.

The Aggies faced off two times already against Colorado State this season, the first with a 72-53 win in Fort Collins and the second with a 70-59 win in Logan.

Colorado State was able to play the Aggies closer than their first two meetings, but Utah State was still able to come away with a win.

Senior guard Rachel Brewster scored nine of the Aggies' 30 points in the first half and junior guard Olivia West scored another nine in the half.

"Olivia and Rachel, we needed that first half out of them" said Utah State head coach Jerry Finkbeiner.

However, Colorado State took advantage of Utah State failing to hit its shots in the third quarter, closing in on the Aggies' lead and gaining one of its own by the end of the quarter 38-37. But the Aggies weren't phased and had an 11-to-nothing run in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter.

Dufficy would make up for a slow first half by scoring seven points and pulling down eight rebounds in the second half. She ended the game with 11 points and 15 rebounds, netting her 18th double-double of the season, a Utah State single season record.

Junior guard Eliza West also broke a record for the Aggies. She dished out three assists to set the USU career assists record with 437, previously held by Jennifer Schlott.

Between all the ups and downs of the second half, Utah State was up by just one point with 30 seconds left in the game. Utah State went on to shoot 6-of-6 from the free throw line, securing a 62-59 win and a trip to the next round.

Read the full game recap here.

Aggies handled by Wyoming in MW quarterfinal

Monday night saw the Aggies fall to Wyoming 64-41, ending their tournament run in the quarterfinals.

The Aggies and the Cowgirls split the two regular season meetings with both teams winning at home. Both low-scoring games, Utah State won their game 50-42, and Wyoming won theirs 53-35.

Right out of the gates, Wyoming wanted to make sure this game didn’t result in a low scoring affair like the previous two meetings. At the end of the first quarter Utah State was faced with an 18-9 deficit and not seeing a lot of options offensively.

“I think Wyoming is the best in the conference in the half court,” said Utah State head coach Jerry Finkbeiner. “They executed offensively really well. A lot of back screens, a lot of cuts and back doors.”

Junior forward Shannon Dufficy was doing her best to keep the Aggies in the game by putting up 11 points at the half along with five rebounds. The all-conference forward would end up leading the team with 17 points and finishing one rebound shy of her 19th double-double of the season. Unfortunately for Utah State, one player contributing wasn’t enough and Wyoming held a 37-21 lead at the half.

Wyoming was not only out-shooting the Aggies, but also was making its presence felt under the basket by cleaning up on the glass. Wyoming pulled down 18 rebounds in the first half, 10 more than Utah State, all while shooting 59 percent from the field.

A 13-to-2 run to start the third quarter put Utah State into an even deeper hole just five minutes into the second half. Wyoming showed no signs of slowing down from the field and there even started to become a feeling of invincibility radiating from its side of the court.

The fourth quarter wouldn’t matter much in the grand scheme of the game as Wyoming scored just 12 points to the Aggies’ 10, ending the game 64-41 and sending the Cowgirls to the semifinals and Utah State back to Logan.

Main photo: Rachel Brewster, Sidebar photo: Deja Mason

This ended up being the final game for a few Aggie seniors, Rachel Brewster and Deja Mason. Brewster was a major contributor to the Aggies winning four straight games to close out the season, averaging 16.6 points per game over the first three games. But after a 16-point performance against Nevada she would go on to score just 18 points over her next three games.

“I wish I could have done better for them,” said Eliza West when asked what ending the season like this meant for the seniors.

Read the full game recap here.

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