The Aggies take their unbeaten record to Seattle for a 2 pm Sunday game against Seattle University in the Connolly Complex. This is the 3rd game of 3 straight road games for the Ags and the Redhawks are always a tough opponent on their home court.
Seattle is 3-2 for the year with wins over UCSB 77-71, Pepperdine 65-62 and Portland State 91-77. Their loses have been to Idaho State 74-69 and Hawai'i 73-58. The Aggies beat Pepperdine 69-64 and Portland State 79-67 so, by comparative scores, this game is a tossup. 5'10 Sr G Alexis Montgomery leads the Redhawks offensively at 21 ppg followed by 5'6 So G Kamira Sanders at 15.6 ppg.
Morgan Bertsch leads the Aggies with 21.6 ppg and Rachel Nagel is scoring 14.8 ppg. The Ags are getting good contributions from a number of players and they'll need to continue that as teams will be trying to lock down tight on Bertsch. One area that the Aggies really need to improve is cutting down on their turnovers. They are averaging 16 TO's per game and that's way too many for a team with as much overall talent as the Aggies have.
37-22 Ags at the half. The game got chippier in the second quarter and the Ags did a good job forcing Seattle to play physical and ultimately getting the Ags into the double bonus early. Redhawks don't really have an answer for Bertsch and Anderson.
Nice job by the Aggies to stretch the lead to 15 after Bertsch had to sit with 2 fouls. Uncharacteristically for the Ags though is that they are only 1 of 9 from 3. The 3 ball is usually a weapon for them.
I think the Seattle coach was upset that a transition foul wasn't called and left the bench to yell at the ref. It was off camera though so that's conjecture based on the scuffle right before.
This is a very nice road win for the Aggies to move to 6-0. Morgan Bertsch continues to dominate and had 25 and Rachel Nagel pumped in 23. The Ags were able to win by 26 even though they were only 5 of 20 from beyond the arc which is not like this team at all. So, with the 3's not falling, the Ags found another way to win.
I thought the Ags played good defense the entire game but 15 TO's are still too many. Bertsch and Nagel have been carrying most of the offensive production lately for the Aggies and I'd like to see some of the other players getting into double digits more often. The Ags don't want to become overly dependent on those two so, when they have an off night, other players well need to step up.
It looked like the Aggies had a good number of fans at the game. I'm sure there were family members and friends there from our Washington and Oregon players.
Seattle's head coach, Suzy Barcomb, commented on Morgan Bertsch in her post-game interview: "Well, she's tall as a giraffe, is very agile, has a variety of moves, can shoot with either hand and is really smart."
ya Bertsch is something else. She’s got great footwork, finesse and seems to be able to efficiently score off either hand on either side. Not to mention her height. I’m really looking forward to the St. Mary’s and Oregon St games to see how they handle her.
I think Dani may be hurt a little or is just not feeling well. Not herself at all. She’ll be back in no time. That is a lot of travel time and Seattle is a good team. Very good win indeed.
I was wondering about her too. She has been seeing very limited playing time lately. Hope she's back up to 100% soon. We'll need her with St Mary's, Oregon State and Central Florida coming up.
Possibly. Nina is very athletic and has good length. Her offensive game has improved this year too. She's still maturing as a player and her inexperience shows at times when she loses focus and makes a poor decision that ends up in a turnover. Hopefully, that will improve with more playing time.
On the other hand, Dani is a very mature player who brings steadiness and stability to the floor. I think that she is probably nursing an injury or has been under the weather. I expect to see her back and playing well pretty soon.