Long Beach comes to town tonight with a chip on their shoulder. It's been a tough season for the normally formidable 49ers and a win over the Aggies on the road would be huge for them. The Ags beat The Beach 83-71 in Long Beach back on February 1st but the game was much closer than the score indicates. The 49ers were within a point late in the 4th quarter before the Aggies finished on a 12-3 run. This was a game that saw the Aggies commit 27 TO's yet still found a way to win.
The Aggies need to be ready for a very fired up bunch of 49ers. Long Beach knows they can hang with the Aggies and they will try to replicate the kind of defensive havoc they created in the first game by pressuring and double teaming the Aggies. The Ags must take care of the ball and keep the pace of the game in their control.
The Ags are currently ranked #9 in the latest College Women's Mid-Major Poll. They are in a good position to continue to make strides toward their goal of getting into the Big Dance. Every game is important from here on out as the team wants to be peaking at the end of the month and it starts tonight in the Pavilion.
Only semi on-topic but as their senior season starts to inch towards a close it's weird for me to picture an Aggie WBB team without Gianotti, Nagel, and Nafehk. They've been regulars 4 out of the 6 seasons I've been following the program and you really can't understate how much they changed everything for the team (though Bertsch and others have also been hugely important). Whenever the team starts faltering you can always count on one of them to drill a 3 and put the Ags right back into the game.
I'm hoping for something spectacular in this last month of the season and postseason. This squad deserves some national recognition before they graduate.
Totally agree with your post, Zander. I would add Marly Anderson to that list of outstanding seniors on the team. It will be sad to see these four leave. They have had a lot to do with the continued rise of Aggie Women's Basketball.
From the little I have been able to find out about our new recruits, it seems like Jen Gross has reloaded for next year as well. It will be fun to see how all the new players come together. The bar has been set high now and it's up to each successive team to raise it higher.
Good point on Anderson, she's provided some key rebounding and inside scoring to this team over the years.
An Eaton/Eaton/Bessolo/Hall/Bertsch lineup with Stobbart and Song and probably a few more surprises thrown in there also could have a very high ceiling next year. Exciting times.