The Aggie women will seek to run their early season record to 3-0 when they take on Portland State at 7 pm on Friday in the Pavilion. The Ags moved up 3 spots to #17 in the most recent women's mid-major poll.
The Vikings are coming off two competitive road loses to UNLV 88-80 in OT and 67-55 to Nevada-Reno. Their loss to UNLV was a game of attrition as they were whistled for 32 fouls and the Runnin' Rebels were tagged with 24. Four Vikings fouled out of the game before it was all over.
PSU is led by a trio of guards: Sidney Rielly, a transfer from Santa Clara, leads the Vikings at 19.5 ppg followed by 5'6 Fr Kylie Jimenez at 16.0 ppg and 5'8 Jr Kiana Brown, a transfer from EWU at 13.0 ppg.
The Aggies will look to continue their balanced attack and good defensive play against the Vikings. Morgan Bertsch is off to a great start at a 23.0 ppg average followed by Rachel Nagel at 15.0 ppg, Pele Gianotti at 12.0 ppg and Nina Bessolo at 9.0 ppg. The Ags are deep are getting significant contributions from Dani Nafehk, Cierra Hall, Marley Anderson and the Eaton twins. One area the Aggies will be trying to improve is their overall rebounding but especially limiting the opponents' offensive boards.
Hopefully, there will be a good crowd on hand to support this excellent team.
The DE said Morgan, Rachel, and Pele have dubbed themselves the Splash Sisters. Somewhat bold talk but they do have the numbers and record to back it up.
I feel like we're in for another chippy game -- 32 fouls in a game speaks to very aggressive tactics and I bet PSU will be applying a lot of pressure to try to stop the offense from clicking. Sounds like PSU is also somewhat deep if they can make it to OT with four players fouling out.
34-27 Aggies at the half. They played much better defense in the 2nd quarter and, as a result, the Vikings FG shooting cooled off to 36% for the half. The Aggies are struggling a bit with the Vikings 2-3 zone and shot 38% for the half.
This one was a struggle for quite a while and PSU closed to within one midway through the 3rd quarter. Then Ags started to get the ball into the interior of the zone for a few buckets and that started opening up the perimeter more and the Ags started knocking down their 3's. The lead grew to 18 at 79-61 before the Vikings finished with a 6-0 run.
This a nice win for the Aggies but they need to come out and start the game with more energy on both ends of the floor than they did tonight. They seemed a little flat in the first quarter. They were not really attacking the Vikings zone much in the first half and seemed content to pass the ball around the perimeter. They were trying get the ball to Bertsch but early on she missing shots she normally makes.
I think Jen Gross would like to see her team cut down on the soft passes that are getting tipped and stolen also. The Ags need to pass crisply with a purpose and not hesitant with a soft lob.
PSU had some good outside shooters and they had good ball movement. The Ags play with confidence and maturity though. They seem to know that at some point they'll get it in gear a make a good run and create some separation.
The Aggies won the game from behind the arc canning 15 0f 28 for 54% to PSU's 9 0f 22 for 41%. Morgan Bertsch and Rachel Nagel led the Ags with 20 apiece.
The Ags travel to Pacific for a 7 pm game on Monday evening.
I don't want to be a wet blanket here, especially in light of a win, but is UCD ever going to coordinate its game recap articles with photos from the actual game, like newspapers and pro team websites do ?
I'm looking at the article for this game, and the photo clearly shows the opponent as "Rams". Now Portland State didn't change its mascot mid- season. The only thing that ties that photo, which was possibly from last year, to the game just played, was the fact that the Aggies were playing basketball. I could see the relevance of using an older photo if it were the same opponent or if the headline were about a specific player's accomplishments (and she was pictured in it), but this photo is just so random. It's like they're saying, "The Aggies won at basketball. Here is a picture of what basketball looks like just in case you've been living under a rock your whole life". With all the technology you would think including game photos with the corresponding game wouldn't be so difficult anymore.