Aggie women beat the Cal Poly Mustangs, 57-52, improve to 11-8

By Jerome le Carrou

February 4, 2005 | Ali Aird led the Aggies with 12 points in a 57-52 victory Thursday over the Cal Poly Mustangs. The Aggies improved to 11-8 for the season and 6-4 in conference play.

Before coming to the Spectrum the Mustangs were 3-7 in conference play, and had just lost their last two home games.

The Aggies were ready to prove they could play with heart after the disappointing game Saturday against Long Beach.

However, the Mustangs took an early lead and led the Aggies for the first half. Cal Poly led 15-10 with 10:56 left and widened the gap to seven points with a 22-15 lead with 7:03 remaining.

USU freshman Taylor Richards scored a lay-up with 1:02 remaining, but the Mustangs had still a 28-25 lead at halftime.

The Aggies shot 37.9 percent from the field while the Mustangs shot 39.3 percent during the first half.

"I think we had still a little hangover from last Saturday," said Richards.

Coach Raegan Pebley said, "Our kids were fighting themselves in that first half. They weren’t fighting Cal Poly."

The Aggies came from the locker room with better intentions and executed well on defense. They finally took the lead 33-32 when forward Jessica Freeman -- who had nine points, 10 rebounds and six blocks -- scored a lay-up with 15:31 left.

But the lead didn't last long as the Mustangs took a five-point advantage, leading 41-36 with 11:23 left. Once again the Aggies took a 46-43 lead with 7:57 remaining but were not able to keep it until the end.

Mustang Jessica Eggleston, who had 15 points, scored two free throws with 4:52 left, enabling her team to lead 50-46.

The end of the game was exciting as Freeman with a jumper pushed the Aggies in o a 52-52 tie with 1:52 remaining.

The team best able to handle the pressure would win.

"We've got more maturity this year. We are older," said Aird.

"We have been in a lot of closing games. We are pretty confident about that," said Richards.

The Aggies finally took the lead for good with a lay-up by Brittany Tressler with 40 seconds left and added three more points to finish the game.

"It was close. Too close," said Richards.

The Mustangs were outrebounded 49-38. The Aggies raised their shooting accuracy to 40 percent for the game.

"I prefer the second half. We were more aggressive, got a lot of rebounds and were trying to create. We were attacking them," said coach Pebley.

The Aggies will face Big West-leading UC Santa Barbara at 2 p.m Saturday in the Spectrum.

"We are ready for them," Aird said.

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