The race for the Big West title has tightened up since the Aggies suffered their first conference loss of the season last Saturday at CSUN. The Ags are now in front Poly and Irvine by one game and are 2 games in front of CSUN.
Tonight's game with Poly is huge. The Ags beat the Mustangs 80-76 back on January 20th and the game came down to the final seconds. The Aggies saw their big lead evaporate in the 4th quarter as Poly mounted a furious comeback fueled by their pressing defense that forced the Aggies into numerous TO's.
Since then Big West teams have decided that the Aggies are vulnerable to being pressure and harassed on defense and that strategy has been largely successful. The Aggies continued to win despite the numerous TO's and even managed to beat Long Beach while turning the ball over 27 times. Those errors finally caught up with them against a determined CSUN team last Saturday and the Aggie fell in overtime.
Poly always plays the Aggies tough and physical and expect we'll see that tonight. The Mustangs know that they had success pressuring the Aggies and we'll likely see more of that tonight also. The Aggies simply must take care of the ball, play smart and dictate the pace of the game. Hopefully, the Aggies will be back in elite form tonight.
I think we will be fine. For some inexplicable reason most teams just do not try and FC press on the road. Why? Do not know. Maybe there is just no fan support to up the hype of the strategy. Also it came as a complete surprise at CP in the last quarter. Ags did not respond well. Not this time if it comes.
The Ags have done a much better job of taking care of the ball and have only 7 TO's so far. Rebounding, however, is where we are getting clobbered 25-12...way too much standing around watching and waiting for the ball instead of going after it. We need to be much more aggressive on the boards.
65-53 Aggies going into the 4th quarter. Poly has started to press and double team and the Aggies are having problems with it. In the last game we were up 20 early in the 4th and cut the lead 3. We'll see if the Ags can handle the pressure.
Aggies win 85-77 behind Morgan Bertsch's 26 points, 5 rebounds and 6 blocks. The 4th quarter was not without some drama though. Poly began to press and double team and cut the Aggie 17 point lead down to 7 before the Ags hung on for the win. Jen Gross has to find an answer for the Aggies' trouble with pressure defenses. Dynn Leaupepe had 34 for the Mustangs.
yes, a very good game. but it was never really in doubt for the Ags. Leaupepe was unconscious from the 3 land, but overall the Ags shot the 3 better, better FG %, better TOs, better, assists, etc. I think we will see CP in the tournament for sure. they are a much better team than CSUN for sure. great game for the Bertch.