March 1, 2014
Logan, Utah - Britta Hall had a season-high 22 points and Rebecca Woodberry and Jasmine Smith each had double doubles, but Jennifer Schlott and the Utah State Aggies second half were too much for the San Jose State women's basketball team in a 96-67 Mountain West Conference defeat on Saturday night.
Hall has scored 21 and 22 points in each of the Spartans (10-17, 4-12 MW) last two games. Against Utah State she had 20 in the first half. She was 7-of-9 from the floor, including 5-of-7 from beyond the arc.
"It's a shame that Britta's best two games have been losses," head coach Jamie Craighead said. "She is starting to get more confident offensively. That's important for us down the stretch and as we move forward."
Utah State pounced on the Spartans hitting their first five shots. In a little over two minutes they had built a 14-3 lead. After a Ta'Rea Cunnigan 3-pointer cut the lead to 14-6, Hall ripped off the nine points in a row. She completed a 3-point play followed by back-to-back treys to give San Jose State its first lead of the game 15-14 with 16:12 to play in the half.
Jennifer Schlott, who finished with a game-high 34 points, put the Aggies back in front 16-15 two possessions later. Utah State pushed its advantage to six points with 13:14 to go in the half.
Hall buried a pair of 3-pointers sandwiched around a Rebecca Woodberry layup to give the lead back to the Spartans, 25-24 inside the 12 minute mark. Woodberry, the Spartans single-season record holder for 3-pointers, made three against Utah State and moved into eighth place on the program's career list with 81. She finished the night with 11 points and 13 rebounds.
The Spartans last lead of the half was 41-40, on a Classye James free throw with 1:45 to play. The Aggies (13-15, 7-10 MW) finished the first 20 minutes on an 11-0 run and took a 51-41 lead into the intermission.
"I was pretty happy with our first half." Craighead said. "We were moving the ball, handled their pressure and executed on defense," Craighead said. "But that run at the end of the half hurt us psychologically as much as anything."
A Riana Byrd 3-point play 17 seconds in to the second half, cut the Aggies lead to seven, but the Spartans then went ice cold from the field. For the next six-plus minutes, from 19:43 to 13:19, the San Jose State missed all seven of its shot attempts and turned the ball over four times.
By the time Cunnigan, who had 13 points on the night, hit a 3-pointer to end the drought, Utah State had stretched its advantage to 19.
San Jose State struggled against the Aggies defensive pressure in the second half and ended up committing 21 turnovers for the game, which Utah State scored 33 points off. They held SJSU to just 6-of-33 shooting in the final 20 minutes on the way to the 29-point win.
"I don't know what the difference was in the second half," Craighead said. "They didn't do anything different. We just didn't handle it."
Jasmine Smith had a season-best 16 rebounds and 11 points for her team-high eighth double double.
"This was a game of halves," Craighead said. "We went down by 10 points and it seemed more like 20. We just haven't been able to recover from those type of deficits all season."
San Jose State vs Utah State
03/01/14 7 p.m. at Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (Logan, Utah)
At Dee Glen Smith Spectrum (Logan, Utah)
UTAH STATE 96, SAN JOSE STATE 67
SAN JOSE STATE (10-17, 4-12 MW)
Hall, Britta 8-15 1-1 22; Cunnigan, Ta'Rea 4-17 2-3 13; Smith, Jasmine 2-7
7-12 11; Woodberry, Rebecca 4-15 0-0 11; West, Rachol 0-2 3-5 3; JAMES,
Classye 1-3 1-3 3; Byrd, Riana 1-6 1-1 3; Tauala, Jayzyl 0-4 1-4 1; BAIRD,
Paris 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 20-72 16-29 67.
UTAH STATE (13-15, 7-10 MW)
SCHLOTT, Jennifer 12-24 8-11 34; WILLIAMS, Makenlee 7-12 1-2 20; BAIRSTOW,
Stephanie 4-9 1-1 11; NELSON, Elise 4-6 1-1 9; STRIKAS, Ingrida 4-4 0-0 8;
DJUKIC, Tijana 3-4 0-0 6; PORTER, Jasmine 1-3 1-2 3; LANDRETH, Liz 1-2 1-2
3; VAAULU, Franny 1-6 0-0 2; MILES, Mariah 0-0 0-0 0; TURNER, Cristal 0-6
0-0 0; JOHNSON, Lynette 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 37-76 13-19 96.
San Jose State................ 41 26 - 67
Utah State.................... 51 45 - 96
3-point goals--San Jose State 11-41 (Hall, Britta 5-12; Cunnigan, Ta'Rea
3-10; Woodberry, Rebecca 3-11; James, Classye 0-1; Tauala, Jayzyl 0-3;
Baird, Paris 0-2; West, Rachol 0-2), Utah State 9-26 (WILLIAMS, Makenlee
5-9; BAIRSTOW, Stephanie 2-4; SCHLOTT, Jennifer 2-5; PORTER, Jasmine 0-2;
TURNER, Cristal 0-6). Fouled out--San Jose State-SMITH, Jasmine, Utah
State-None. Rebounds--San Jose State 51 (Smith, Jasmine 16), Utah State 51
(STRIKAS, Ingrida 11). Assists--San Jose State 12 (Woodberry, Rebecca 5),
Utah State 24 (SCHLOTT, Jennifer 11). Total fouls--San Jose State 19, Utah
State 19. Technical fouls--San Jose State-None, Utah State-None. A-901