Utah State women's basketball hopes to start strong against Idaho State

By Ashley Springer

The Utah State University women’s basketball team is looking to start off strong when it takes on Idaho State University on the road on Tuesday.

USU has started off behind in the first quarter in both of its road games this season with losses to the University of Northern Colorado on Tuesday and Brigham Young University on Nov. 24. Against Northern Colorado, the USU Aggies were behind 26-20 at the end of the first quarter and lost 74-60. Against BYU, the Aggies were behind 27-18 at the end of the first quarter and lost 81-69.

“Good teams set the tone early and establish their routine and their rhythm,” said USU head coach Jerry Finkbeiner. “That’s just a good thing for any team to start off strong, set the tone.”

Finkbeiner said it’s important the team doesn’t dig a hole for itself like it did against Northern Colorado.

“Our last away game we dug a hole early, spent a lot of energy catching up, finally went ahead and then just fell flat,” Finkbeiner said. “So we just got to be consistent, start well.”

Against Northern Colorado, the Aggies were behind 44-31 at the half, but held the Bears to four points in the third quarter to take the 51-48 lead. However, in the fourth quarter, the Aggies were outscored 26-9 and Northern Colorado took the win.

“We need to have the energy from the beginning,” senior forward Tijana Djukic said. “So as soon as the ball is on the court, we need to execute well and have effort and just play the best we can.”

Finkbeiner said in order to start off well, the best shooters need to have more opportunities early on to score and the best rebounders need to rebound the ball.

“I always use the phrase: ‘Let’s have no surprises,’” Finkbeiner said. “Being predictable with no surprises is big because that represents consistency and a little bit of stableness to us.”

Additional focuses for Tuesday’s game, Finkbeiner said, will be the Aggies’ man-to-man offense and defending Idaho State’s screens and cuts.

Djukic said her main goal for the game is simply “to win.”

“We got to worry more about ourselves,” Finkbeiner said. “We have to execute… It’s going to be a well contested game, it’s going to be very competitive and our girls have to be on.”