BACK IN ACTION
\nUtah State returns from its lone bye week of the conference season to host Fresno State on Sunday, Feb. 15, at 1 p.m. (MT), at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.<\/p>\n
FOLLOW ALONG
\nAll games during conference play will be streamed on the Mountain West Network with live stats available through UtahStateAggies.com.<\/p>\n
DEFENSIVE PROWESS
\nA key aspect of Utah State’s defense has been defending the 3-point line. The Aggies currently rank fifth in the Mountain West in 3-point field goal percentage allowed during MW play, holding opponents to 30.5 percent from behind the arc. Utah State led the league in 3-point percentage allowed through the first four weeks of conference play, allowing a mark of 26.3 percent from its opponents through eight conference games.<\/p>\n
THE STARTING LINE
\nUtah State has started 15 different lineups this season, the most in the nation. Due to a number of injuries, 10 different Aggies have made at least one start this season.<\/p>\n
WINNING PLATEAUS
\nIn games in which USU has scored 65 or more points, the Aggies have gone 6-3 this season and have gone 0-14 when failing to reach that benchmark. Utah State is 5-3 when hitting at least 30.0 percent of their 3-point attempts, but only 1-14 when below that figure.<\/p>\n
The Aggies are 4-0 when winning the rebounding battle and only 2-17 when being outrebounded by their opponent. Utah State is also 5-4 when holding opponents to 40.0 percent shooting from the field or worse but only 1-13 when opponents clear that figure.<\/p>\n
BUMPS AND BRUISES STRETCHING THE FLOOR CONVERTING THE FREEBIES Utah State also leads the league and is tied for 21st nationally with five players shooting over 70.0 percent from the free throw line on at least 30 attempts this season (Marina Asensio<\/a>,\u00a0Aaliyah Gayles<\/a>,\u00a0Jamisyn Heaton<\/a>,\u00a0Karyn Sanford<\/a>,\u00a0Sophie Sene<\/a>). Only Boise State, Air Force and Grand Canyon boast even four such players this season among MW teams.<\/p>\n THREE-LEVEL SCORER Gayles\u00a0scored a then-career-high 20 points in USU’s game at San Diego, marking the first 20-point game this season by an Aggie.\u00a0Asensio\u00a0became the second Aggie to reach the plateau this year with a 20-point effort in the team’s outing at Nevada.\u00a0Heaton\u00a0made it three Aggies with a 20+ performance this season against UNLV. Utah State had 15 such games last season, the most by the team in a single season since 2021-22.<\/p>\n HANDS OFF In the team’s first game versus Wyoming, the Aggies committed only seven fouls, the fewest in a game since 2012 and tied for the third-fewest in a game since the program was restarted in 2003-04.<\/p>\n AGGIES VS EVERYONE HANG ON TO THAT BALL, PETEY DOUBLE OR NOTHING FRESHMAN RHYTHM OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT\u00a0 SPECTRUM MAGIC SLOWING IT DOWN STUFFING THE STAT SHEET\u00a0 A TALL TASK ACCOMPLISHED Sene’s true shooting percentage of 121.4% was the highest in program history with at least five field goal attempts.<\/p>\n STEP ON UP, KNOCK ‘EM DOWN HELPER HELPER HEROICS GALORE Against Omaha at home, USU was tied with the Mavericks at 69-69 before closing out the game on an 8-0 run, kickstarted by back-to-back 3-pointers from\u00a0Livingston.<\/p>\n STARTER JACKETS AN ALL-TIME OUTING RECORD BREAKERS REINFORCEMENTS ON THE WAY ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD, BUT THIS IS NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH TEAM ADDITIONS PEER PRESSURE FINISHED STRONG AGGIE TRADITION ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF INTERNATIONAL FLARE STANDING TALL UP NEXT Tickets 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.
\nUtah State has battled its way through more than its fair share of injuries this season. The Aggies lost senior guard\u00a0Marina Asensio<\/a>\u00a0for the season early in conference play after\u00a0Asensio\u00a0had established herself among the top ranks in the Mountain West for scoring, assists and assist-to-turnover ratio. USU also spent a prolonged period without leading scorer\u00a0Aaliyah Gayles<\/a>\u00a0during league action. Elsewhere, the Aggies have at times been without senior center\u00a0Sophie Sene<\/a>, senior guard\/forward\u00a0Jamisyn Heaton<\/a>, senior forward\u00a0Rachel Wilson<\/a>\u00a0and freshman forward\u00a0Andjela Marojevic<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nAmong centers,\u00a0Sene\u00a0leads the nation in 3-point percentage with at least 35 attempts this season.\u00a0Sene\u00a0is shooting 41.7 percent (15-of-36) from behind the arc this season and is the only center over 40.0 percent on the season. Expanding parameters to any player 6-foot-3 or taller,\u00a0Sene\u00a0still ranks fifth in the nation and first in the MW in 3-point percentage with at least 35 attempts.<\/p>\n
\nUSU currently ranks fifth in the Mountain West during league play with a 74.9 percentage mark from the free throw line. The Aggies have gone 146-of-195 from the charity stripe so far in MW action.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nGayles\u00a0posted a career-high 24 points in USU’s game against Grand Canyon, shooting 10-of-21 from the field and 2-of-7 from 3-point range.\u00a0Gayles\u00a0also led the team with five rebounds, three assists and four steals, becoming the first Aggie to lead the team in all four categories in the same game this season.<\/p>\n
\nAnother key part of USU’s defensive fortitude this season is the team’s aversion to fouling. The Aggies are currently averaging 14.739 fouls per game, the fewest in program history, besting the 2011-12 team’s mark of 14.742 fouls per game. That has led to opponents averaging only 14.6 free throw attempts per game, the second-fewest in program history and trailing only the 2019-20 team’s mark of 13.9 free throw attempts allowed per game.<\/p>\n
\nUtah State trails the all-time series against Fresno State, 34-7. The Bulldogs have won the past six meetings, though the Aggies had won each of the three meetings prior to the current stretch. USU is 4-14 all-time at home against Fresno State, last winning in 2022 in a 96-90 OT thriller. FS has won each of the past three matchups in Logan. The two sides met in the opening round of the MW Tournament in 2022, resulting in an 80-75 Aggie victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nUtah State currently carries an average turnover margin of 0.8 per game. The Aggies have turned the ball over 15.4 times per game while forcing their opponents into 16.2 turnovers per game. This would be the first season USU has managed a positive turnover differential since the 2018-19 campaign.<\/p>\n
\nSeniors\u00a0Sophie Sene<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Jamisyn Heaton<\/a>\u00a0each recorded double-doubles against San Jose State, the first game in which USU has recorded multiple double-doubles since Tamiah Robinson<\/a> and Olivia Wikstrom<\/a> did so against Arkansas State in December of 2022.\u00a0Sene\u00a0finished with 19 points plus 13 rebounds and a block while\u00a0Heaton\u00a0finished with 19 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and two steals.<\/p>\n
\nMunoz Herreros\u00a0went 3-of-3 on 3-point attempts against UNLV, becoming just the eighth freshman in program history to shoot 100 percent on at least three 3-pointers in a game. The Spaniard enjoyed her best week of the season last week, scoring 12 points against the Rebels and then recording a career-high 13 points agains San Diego State, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with 15 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n
\nUtah State’s win over Air Force to begin Mountain West action was USU’s first in its conference opener since defeating Nevada to begin MW play in 2018-19. The Aggies had lost six-straight MW openers prior to this season. USU also snapped a nine-game losing skid to the Falcons with the victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nUtah State won five-straight games at the Spectrum earlier this season, recording consecutive home wins over Omaha (77-69), Stanislaus State (96-41), Idaho (80-73), Air Force (65-53) and San Jose State (74-61). The five-game streak was USU’s longest home winning streak since a six-game stretch spanning the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons.<\/p>\n
\nLast season, 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. But this season, USU has slowed their pace down to 71.1 possessions per game, now ranking sixth in the MW. San Jose State and Grand Canyon now lead the league with 73.5 possessions per game while USU also ranks behind New Mexico, Boise State and Fresno State in average pace.<\/p>\n
\nJunior guard\u00a0Aaliyah Gayles<\/a>\u00a0led the charge in USU’s 65-53 win over Air Force, scoring 19 points alongside 10 rebounds and four assists, becoming the first Aggie to hit those marks since Shannon Dufficy did so against San Jose State in 2019.\u00a0Gayles\u00a0finished 4-of-8 from the field, 2-of-2 from 3-point range and went 9-of-10 from the free throw line while recording her first career double-double.\u00a0Heaton\u00a0then matched the stat line in USU’s win over San Jose State, going 7-of-12 from the field and 4-of-4 from the FT line and adding two steals in the victory.<\/p>\n
\nSene\u00a0scored 17 points on 5-of-6 shooting against Idaho, including a career-high five made 3-pointers, becoming the fifth player 6-foot-3 or taller in the Mountain West to ever hit five threes in a game and the first since Boise State’s Mallory McGwire did so twice during the 2020-21 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nSene\u00a0went 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).\u00a0Sene\u00a0also added seven rebounds to lead the team.\u00a0Sene\u00a0currently ranks sixth in the Mountain West in free throw percentage with at least 30 free throw attempts with a mark of 86.1 percent.<\/p>\n
\nUSU has recorded double-digit assists in 12 games so far this season and is 6-8 in those games. Five separate Aggies have recorded five assists in a game this season as\u00a0Gayles, Livingston\u00a0and freshman\u00a0Bella Cosme<\/a>\u00a0have each done so once while\u00a0Sanford\u00a0and\u00a0Asensio\u00a0have done so twice, including\u00a0Asensio’s\u00a0career-high nine assists against San Jose State, the most by an Aggie since Emmie Harris in 2022. USU had only eight games last season in which a player recorded five or more assists.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nThe Aggies recorded two-straight wins over Cal State Bakersfield and Omaha, both featuring late heroics to earn the victory.\u00a0Gayles\u00a0hit back-to-back threes to help Utah State erase 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.<\/p>\n
\nUtah State returns three players with extensive starting experience in\u00a0Jamisyn Heaton<\/a>,\u00a0Elise Livingston<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Sophie Sene<\/a>.\u00a0Heaton\u00a0led the Aggies last season with 27 starts while\u00a0Livingston\u00a0followed close behind with 26 starts to her name. After missing several games early in the season due to injury,\u00a0Sene\u00a0returned to the lineup to make 17 starts last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nIn 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.<\/p>\n
\nUtah 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, USU has recorded 145 3-pointers, currently on pace for approximately 189 3-pointers on the full season which would rank near the top five all-time in program history.<\/p>\n
\nUtah State’s 2025-26 roster is highlighted by the additions of\u00a0Aaliyah Gayles<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Marina Asensio<\/a>, with the backcourt duo bringing a wealth of experience and pedigree to Logan.\u00a0Gayles\u00a0was 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.\u00a0Asensio\u00a0played 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.<\/p>\n
\nMarina Asensio<\/a>\u00a0played this summer for the Spanish U21 National Team at the FIBA 3×3 U21 Nations League in Bratislava, Slovakia.\u00a0Asensio\u00a0led the tournament in scoring while leading Spain to a gold medal.\u00a0PalomaMu\u00f1oz Herreros\u00a0also competed for Spain this summer at the U18 3×3 European Youth Olympic Festival.<\/p>\n
\nWith 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.<\/p>\n
\nThe 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 last season, USU’s first sweep of a conference foe since defeating Air Force twice during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nOver 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.<\/p>\n
\nSophomore forward\u00a0Macie Brown<\/a>\u00a0is 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nThe Aggies welcome in 11 newcomers for the 2025-26 season. In addition to\u00a0Gayles\u00a0and\u00a0Asensio, Utah State brings in three more transfers in senior\u00a0Rachel Wilson<\/a>\u00a0(Wheeling), senior\u00a0Karyn Sanford<\/a>\u00a0(Tarleton State) and sophomore\u00a0Macie Brown<\/a>\u00a0(College of Southern Idaho).\u00a0Saskia Kr\u00fcger\u00a0and\u00a0Andjela Marojevic<\/a>\u00a0join USU as sophomores after spending their freshman seasons in Europe. The Aggies also bring in four true freshmen in\u00a0Aitana Rosello Lopez<\/a>,\u00a0Paloma Mu\u00f1oz Herreros,\u00a0Mirembe Twehamye Montanana<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Bella Cosme<\/a>. Seniors\u00a0Sophie Sene<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Jamisyn Heaton<\/a>\u00a0plus sophomore\u00a0Elise Livingston<\/a>\u00a0return from last year’s squad for USU.<\/p>\n
\nThis 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\u00a0Asensio,\u00a0Rosello Lopez,\u00a0Mu\u00f1oz Herreros\u00a0and\u00a0Twehamye Montanana. Also represented on this year’s roster is Zambia (Kr\u00fcger), 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).<\/p>\n
\nUtah State’s roster boasts six players standing 6-foot or taller in\u00a0Sophie Sene<\/a>\u00a0(6-3),\u00a0Rachel Wilson<\/a>\u00a0(6-2),\u00a0Saskia\u00a0Kr\u00fcger\u00a0(6-1),\u00a0Paloma\u00a0Mu\u00f1oz Herreros, (6-1),\u00a0Karyn Sanford<\/a>\u00a0(6-0) and\u00a0Macie Brown<\/a>\u00a0(6-0). The Aggies fielded only three such players on last year’s roster.<\/p>\n
\nUtah State heads out on a two-game road trip, first taking on San Jose State on Wednesday, Feb. 18, at 8 p.m. (MT), before heading to Phoenix to face Grand Canyon on Saturday, Feb. 21, at noon (MT).<\/p>\n
\nSeason tickets, mini-plans and single-game tickets are on sale now and can be purchased\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0or by visiting the USU Ticket Office<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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\n– USU –<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BACK IN ACTION Utah State returns from its lone bye week of the conference season to host Fresno…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-176824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}