BACK IN ACTION
Utah State returns to action with a two-game road trip to southern California. The Aggies will first take on LMU on Friday, Dec. 5, at 7 p.m. (MT), before a matchup against San Diego on Sunday, Dec. 7, at 3 p.m. (MT).

FOLLOW ALONG

Both this weekend’s games will stream on ESPN+ with links to live stats available through UtahStateAggies.com.

AGGIES VS EVERYONE

Utah State trails the all-time series against LMU, 2-3. The two sides met in a home-and-away series across 2021 and 2022 with the Lions taking both meetings by single digits. Each side won a home matchup by double digits across the 2012 and 2013 seasons. USU also won the inaugural matchup in Los Angeles in 1985.

Utah State and San Diego will meet for the fourth time on Sunday, though this will be the first non-neutral matchup between the two schools. The Toreros lead the series, 2-1, and won the most recent matchup in Albuquerque in 2004. The two sides split a pair of neutral contests in the early 1980s.

ICYMI

Utah State went 1-2 prior to Thanksgiving, falling in a pair of road trips to the Beaver State against Oregon and Oregon State. The Aggies also recorded a 55-point win over Stanislaus State at home with five players scoring in double figures for the first time since February of 2022. Senior guard/forward Jamisyn Heaton led the team with 15 points while senior guard Marina Asensio and freshman guard Paloma Munoz Herreros added 13 and 12 points, respectively. Livingston and senior guard Karyn Sanford rounded out USU’s double-digit scorers with 10 points apiece.

HEROICS GALORE

The Aggies recorded two-straight wins over Cal State Bakersfield, both featuring late heroics to earn the victory. Junior guard Aaliyah Gayles hit back-to-back threes to help Utah State erased a five-point deficit with less than two minutes remaining to defeat Cal State Bakersfield, 68-65. This was the first time the Aggies have come back from five or more points down in the final two minutes since erasing a six-point deficit in the final two minutes to defeat Fresno State, 80-75, on March 6, 2022.

Against Omaha at home, USU was tied with the Mavericks at 69-69 before closing out the game on an 8-0, kickstarted by back-to-back 3-pointers from sophomore guard Elise Livingston.

AN ALL-TIME OUTING

In USU’s 96-41 win over Stanislaus State, the Aggies set a program record with 36 forced turnovers and became the first Mountain West team ever with nine players each hitting a 3-pointer in a game. The Aggies tied their program record with 14 made 3-pointers, standing alongside a pair of games in 2013 against Idaho and New Mexico State. The 55-point margin of victory is also USU’s fifth-largest in program history. The Aggies recorded 20 steals as a team, the most by the team since recording 21 against Utah Valley in 2014. Utah State outscored Stanislaus State, 44-7, in points off turnovers. USU’s 21 assists are also the most by the Aggies since recording 24 helpers against Fresno State in 2022. The Aggies’ 96 points were also tied for the most points in a game since scoring 106 against Northern New Mexico in 2018.

STEP ON UP, KNOCK ‘EM DOWN

Senior center Sophie Sene went a perfect 10-of-10 from the free throw line in the team’s 68-65 win at Cal State Bakersfield, becoming just the eighth different player to go perfect from the charity stripe on at least 10 attempts in program history (14 total instances). Sene also added seven rebounds to lead the team. Sene currently ranks fourth in the Mountain West with a 91.7 free throw percentage.

SMALL IN SIZE, LARGE IN STATURE

Senior guard Marina Asensio currently leads the team with 0.7 blocks per game. Asensio’s four blocks are already more than halfway to her career-high for a season of six which she set last season. Asensio is one of only 43 players in the nation 5-foot-8 or shorter with at least four blocks this season and one of only two in the MW (Air Force’s Milahnie Perry).

HELPER HELPER

Senior guards Karyn Sanford and Marina Asensio are each averaging at least 2.5 assists per game, a feat not achieved by USU over a full season since 2021-22. Sanford and freshman guard Bella Cosme have each recorded six assists in a game this year, tied for the most assists by an Aggie in a game since Emmie Harris in March of 2022. The Aggies already have four games this season where a player has registered five or more assists, already halfway to the team’s total for all of last season.

RECORD BREAKERS

Utah State made 256 3-pointers last season, breaking the program record of 247 3-pointers made by the team in 2012-13. Utah State also surpassed the program record for 3-point attempts with 889 attempts from behind the arc, shattering the 2012-13 team’s mark of 752 3-point attempts. 

This year, the team ranks third in the Mountain West with 7.7 made 3-pointers per game and has improved from 10th last season to fourth this year with a 31.9 percent mark on 3-point attempts. 

LET IT FLY

Utah State ranked first in the MW and 30th nationally with 8.3 made 3-pointers per game. The Aggies also ranked first in the MW and seventh in the nation with 28.7 attempts from 3-point range per game this season. USU’s three-point rate (the number of 3-point attempts relative to a team’s total field goal attempts) of 40.6 percent ranked first in the MW and 10th in the nation. 

 

The Aggies had 11 players averaging at least one 3-point attempt per game, tying for the third-most such players in the country and the most such players for a single season in program history. Utah State also set a program record with five players averaging at least one 3-pointer per game.

REINFORCEMENTS ON THE WAY

Utah State’s 2025-26 roster is highlighted by the additions of Aaliyah Gayles and Marina Asensio, with the backcourt duo bringing a wealth of experience and pedigree to Logan. Gayles was ranked the No. 8 recruit in the nation and a Mcdonald’s All-American coming out of high school in 2022, and spent the last three seasons at USC. Asensio played last season at Western Michigan and her first two seasons at South Florida. She has twice played in the NCAA Tournament and earned all-MAC honorable mention last season.

ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD, BUT THIS IS

Marina Asensio played this summer for the Spanish U21 National Team at the FIBA 3×3 U21 Nations League in Bratislava, Slovakia. Asensio led the tournament in scoring while leading Spain to a gold medal. Paloma Muñoz Herreros also competed for Spain this summer at the U18 3×3 European Youth Olympic Festival.

PEER PRESSURE

The Aggies won back-to-back conference games last season against San Jose State and Nevada, their first time doing so since winning three-straight versus conference opponents in 2022. Utah State also swept San Jose State this season, USU’s first sweep of a conference foe since defeating Air Force twice during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season. 

I AM SPEED

The Aggies finished the 2024-25 season as the fastest team in the Mountain West, averaging 75.1 possessions per 40 minutes. New Mexico ranked second in the MW with 73.1 possessions per 40 minutes.

WITH THE ASSIST

Utah State registered 23 games this season with double-digit assists last season, far surpassing the previous year’s mark of 12 such games. The Aggies averaged 11.5 assists per game, nearly three more assists per game than 2023-24, the second-biggest improvement among teams in the Mountain West. USU’s 23 games of 10 or more assists ranks eighth all-time in program for a single season, and is the most since team recorded 24 such games in 2021-22.

FINISHED STRONG

Over the last five games of the 2024-25 regular season, the Utah State offense averaged 75.2 points per game, the highest offensive output in the Mountain West during a team’s final five games of the regular season.

NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH TEAM ADDITIONS

With four players hailing from Spain out of its 14-player roster, Utah State has the highest percentage of players from Spain of anyone in the nation this season.

ON THE UPSWING

Utah State ranked at the top of the Mountain West last year and near the top of the nation in several year-over-year improvements from the 2023-24 season. USU averaged 11.8 more 3-point field goal attempts per game last season compared to 2023-24, the largest year-over-year jump in the nation. The Aggies also averaged 9.9 more field goal attempts per game (second-largest jump in the nation), 3.4 more made 3-pointers per game (third in nation) and had a 13.3 percent increase in 3-point rate over last season (second in nation). USU also averaged 2.1 more steals per game, 6.4 more points per game, 4.5 more possessions per game, 4.2 more forced turnovers per game, and 3.9 more made field goals per game, all of which are the largest year-over-year jumps among Mountain West teams this season.

AGGIE TRADITION

Sophomore forward Macie Brown is the daughter of Aggie Hall of Famer Tony Brown, a member of USU’s All-Century basketball team in 2005. “Downtown” Tony Brown earned honorable mention All-America honors from Basketball News following his senior season and was named to the all-Big West first team as a junior. That season, Brown made one of the most memorable shots in school history in the finals seconds of regulation against No. 25 Ohio State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to tie the game. USU went on to defeat the Buckeyes in overtime to notch its first NCAA Tournament win in 31 years. 

ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF

The Aggies welcome in 11 newcomers for the 2025-26 season. In addition to Gayles and Asensio, Utah State brings in three more transfers in senior Rachel Wilson (Wheeling), senior Karyn Sanford (Tarleton State) and sophomore Macie Brown (College of Southern Idaho). Saskia Krüger and Andjela Marojevic join USU as sophomores after spending their freshman seasons in Europe. The Aggies also bring in four true freshmen in Aitana Rosello Lopez, Paloma Muñoz Herreros, Mirembe Twehamye Montanana and Bella Cosme. Seniors Sophie Sene and Jamisyn Heaton plus sophomore Elise Livingston return from last year’s squad for USU.

INTERNATIONAL FLARE

This season, Utah State is majority international as the Aggies field eight players from overseas out of 14 players on the roster. USU boasts four players from Spain, the most in the nation, in Asensio, Rosello Lopez, Muñoz Herreros and Twehamye Montanana. Also represented on this year’s roster is Zambia (Krüger), Serbia (Marojevic), Norway (Sanford) and France (Sene). This is the first time in program history that over 50 percent of Utah State’s roster is from outside the United States. The Aggies last fielded even 50 percent international players in 2018-19 (seven out of 14).

STANDING TALL

Utah State’s roster boasts six players standing 6-foot or taller in Sophie Sene (6-3), Rachel Wilson (6-2), Saskia Krüger (6-1), Paloma Muñoz Herreros, (6-1), Karyn Sanford (6-0) and Macie Brown (6-0). The Aggies fielded only three such players on last year’s roster.

STARTER JACKETS

Utah State returns three players with extensive starting experience in Jamisyn Heaton, Elise Livingston and Sophie Sene. Heaton led the Aggies last season with 27 starts while Livingston followed close behind with 26 starts to her name. After missing several games early in the season due to injury, Sene returned to the lineup to make 17 starts last season.

UP NEXT

Utah State returns to the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum to host Idaho on Saturday, Dec. 13, at 1 p.m. (MT), in the team’s nonconference finale before getting ready for Mountain West play.

Tickets

Season tickets, mini-plans and single-game tickets are on sale now and can be purchased here or by visiting the USU Ticket Office.

Fans can follow USU women’s basketball on Twitter, @USUWBasketball, on Instagram, @USUWBasketball, as well as on Facebook, at /USUWBB. Aggie fans can also follow Utah State Athletics on Twitter, @USUAthletics, on Instagram, @USUAthletics and on Facebook at /USUAthletics.

 

– USU –