LOGAN – The Wes Brooks era of Utah State women’s basketball began in defeat, showcasing the mountain the former Ohio State and Michigan assistant coach and his youthful cast of players have to climb. Kansas City, a team the Aggies defeated last season on the road 62-60 for the first of what was only five wins in the 2023-24 campaign, exacted revenge by walking out of the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum with a 80-77 win.
Twice the Aggies held seven-point leads in the fourth quarter, 69-62 and 76-69, but each time the Roos responded with a run of their own. First a 7-0 run to tie the game 69-all, then an 11-1 run to finish the game and claim victory.
“I thought we played hard tonight. The effort was there, execution was not,” Brooks said, later adding a note about effort, saying “Effort doesn’t win at this level. Execution does. And so we have to execute. That’s the only way you get to an elite level: execution. So we just have to get better at executing, but we will.”
That Utah State held multiple leads of seven points was a small miracle itself. For the vast majority of the game the Aggies struggled to move in front. Their only lead until the fourth quarter was the one Cheyenne Stubbs gave her team at the 9:00 mark of the opening quarter. She scored the first of her team-high 28 points on a do-it-all-herself play, throwing the ball off her defender on an in-bounds play, gathering the ball, and then driving her way to the basket.
A little 🔄 SPIN CYCLE 🔄 to start off the season! pic.twitter.com/tBEYw3Jw0D
— USU Women’s Hoops (@USUWBasketball) November 5, 2024
After that, the Roos scored to tie it 2-2, then nosed ahead 4-2 for the first and only lead change for the next 29 minutes of game time. The Aggies mostly kept it close, though. Kansas City got its lead as high as nine points (40-31 with 2:21 left in the second quarter) but never beyond that.
Multiple times throughout the game, USU made a push, but didn’t make it stick, failing to cut Kansas City’s lead to one possession or even outright take the lead. A Denae Skelton 3-pointer that could’ve tied the game at 22 rimmed out. Early in the third quarter, Stubbs went 0-for-3 on a trip to the line early in the fourth that could’ve made it 49-47. A two-on-one fast break later in the third became a turnover instead of cutting it to 51-50. Stubbs missed a 3-pointer with 3:15 left in the third clanked off the rim instead of handing USU a 54-53 lead. And at the start of the fourth, Stubbs
But finally, with 9:22 left in the game, the Aggies once again took the lead. Heaton hit a layup to make it 63-62. Though not only did USU take the lead, they expanded on it with back-to-back threes from Skelton and Mia Tarver to make it 69-62, creating an electric atmosphere, even from a sparse crowd of 500.
BEDLAM IN THE SPECTRUM!
Back-to-back 3s and we’re up 7! pic.twitter.com/9Zh2lMVwIC
— USU Women’s Hoops (@USUWBasketball) November 5, 2024
That’s when Kansas City made its first quick rally. Seven straight points, capped by a triple from Alayna Contreras who led all scorers on the night with 29 points.
And yet, despite that setback, Utah State once again went on a run, a 7-0 run to match the Roos, to take a 76-69 lead and an equally electric surge coursed through the arena as the Aggies looked to be in position to win with 3:42 on the clock.
Unfortunately, Utah State couldn’t hold on. From that moment, the game-ending 11-1 Kansas City run began. The Aggies had every chance to delay and extend the lead but failed. Heaton, who started the game a perfect 5-of-5 on field goal attempts, missed her final two attempts, including an open layup that would have handed USU a 78-73 advantage with 1:11 left. Stubbs, whose performance Brooks described by saying “we were in the game because of her” lost the ball in the backcourt with under a minute to play. Not only did it give Kansas City possession and cut out any shot attempt by USU, but it left an extra 25 or so seconds off the clock.
Even with those mistakes, USU had enough of a cushion built to give itself a chance to make a play at the end. After Stubbs’ turnover, the Aggies simply had to D up. But on that possession, USU overplayed the ball and left Contreras — the leading scorer on the night who’d made three 3-pointers already to that point — wide open. She made USU pay with a game-tying 3-pointer to make it 76-76.
And yet, USU had the ball with 48 seconds left to take the lead. And they did so. Stubbs was fouled and went to the line. The Aggies own leading scorer had a chance to counter the Roos’ top player. But Stubbs had struggled at the line that night. After making four of her first five attempts, she missed her next four. That included the front end of these two late free throws.
That single point was enough to take the lead, but not enough to keep it. It would also be the final points of the game for USU. Kansas City hit a layup with 21 seconds left to take the lead. On the other end of the floor, Heaton — who had been arguably the best all-around player for USU in the game with 10 points, seven rebounds, two steals and a pair of assists and four fouls drawn — traveled as she spun in the post, turning toward the basket.
Following the take foul, which Kansas City took full advantage of to build a three-point lead (and the final score) of 80-77, the Aggies couldn’t generate a clean look to tie the game. Stubbs’ wild and long attempt missed and the game ended with a win for the visitors.
Utah State had every chance to close out the game with a win, but didn’t make it count when the game was truly on the line. One of the biggest culprits for missed shots was missed free throws. Stubbs will see her four second-half misses in her sleep, but she was not alone in the misses. The Aggies made just 7 of 17 attempts on the night.
“That’s not gonna get it done,” Brooks said. “(Kansas City) were 14 of 15 [on free throws]. That’s how you win on the road and that’s what I told them. We gotta make free throws.”
Additionally, the Aggies missed their final five attempts from the field. Four of those were after Heaton missed her open layup. Brooks called upon the old addage of basketball being a “make or miss game.”
“We made shots, and then we didn’t make shots,” Brooks said. “We could have gone up. We didn’t make the layup. And we didn’t make shots at the end.”
