LOGAN – For the second time in this young season, Utah State surrendered a fourth-quarter lead and lost a close game that was within reach in the final minute of the game. Despite leading by six points with six minutes to play, and despite multiple heroic 3-point makes from Cheyenne Stubbs in the closing seconds, the Aggies would end the night with a 69-65 loss to Cal State Northridge.
Stubbs finished the game with the team lead in both points (15) and rebounds (11), though oddly enough she wasn’t in the starting lineup.
That wasn’t on purpose though.
The starting lineups, which must be reported 15 minutes before the game by both teams, mistakenly marked freshman Taliyah Logwood as one of the starters instead of Cheyenne Stubbs. Although Stubbs was announced to the crowd as a starter, officials forced the senior guard to the bench for the opening tip with Logwood trotting out to make her collegiate debut and first start due to this snafu.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like that,” Brooks said. “I told our staff, we just can’t make that mistake. We’re veterans. If I made that mistake last year at Ohio State, (Kevin) McGuff would have had my butt.”
That small mistake would be one of what was simply too many small mistakes by Utah State all night. Most of which seemed to bunch up at crucial times, when control of the game was in the balance and in the clutch.
The first cluster of errors spanned the late first and early second quarter. Utah State went on an almighty cold spell, missing 16 consecutive field goal attempts and going scoreless for almost exactly six minutes of game time.
That stretch wasn’t all bad, though. The Aggies had a 16-8 at the start, but when Gracie Johnson finally ripped the net with a 3-pointer to end the run, CSUN had only tied the game 16-16. Although momentum had been lost, the damage wasn’t catastrophic.
What the damage ended up being, though, was a lost opportunity. CSUN would go on a 9-0 run late in the second quarter to force Utah State to play from multiple possessions behind for the first time in the game. And while the Aggies were up to it, that was just another self-made obstacle.
No matter whether the obstacles were self-made or put up by CSUN, the Aggies were ale to overcome most of them. The 9-0 run by the Matadors was countered in the early second half by an 8-0 run from USU. When CSUN battled back to tie the game at the end of the third quarter, and took a lead in the early fourth, Utah State went on a 9-1 run to take a six-point, 54-49 lead.
And that’s when another litany of small mistakes cropped up again.
Every step forward Utah State took in the final six minutes of the game was met by two steps backward. A steal would become a turnover on the other end. A rebound after a great stop morphed into a pass where the recipient wasn’t looking. Forcing a miss on defense became an offensive rebound for CSUN and an easy put-back.
“We actually got a couple of steals, but we didn’t convert the layups. If you get the steal, you could convert the layup and it’s a different game,” Brooks said.
The most consistent of the mistakes, throughout the game and not just late, was fouling. CSUN attempted 30 free throws, making 22.
“We did a pretty good job guarding them, holding them to 21 percent from three and 36 percent from the field. But guess what? You can’t guard them at the free throw line. So we got to do a better job defending without fouling.”
They couldn’t keep the Matadors off the free throw line and they couldn’t keep Yves Cox from getting close looks at the basket. Cox finished with a game-high 19 points along with 11 rebounds, four of those being on the offensive glass.
With all of these small mistakes piling up, the Aggies fell behind 63-58, and only Stubbs managed to keep the game close enough for the Aggies to nearly pull it off. She hit a 3-pointer to make it 63-61, but then USU yielded a layup. Stubbs hit another to make it 65-64, only for another quick layup to put USU down 67-64 with 49 seconds left. Stubbs drew a foul on the next possession, but only converted one of the freebies. So when CSUN hit its two free throws on the take foul, USU was down four points with 10 seconds and couldn’t overcome.
