by By Brian Kortz, WNMU Athletics
LOGAN, UTAH – The Western New Mexico University women’s basketball team held an eight-point first half lead and was tied at halftime with Division I Utah State University before the Lady Aggies pulled away midway through the second half for the 87-66 exhibition win Monday night.
Cristiana Yepa (Colville Tribe) connected on a three at the 12:36 mark to give WNMU a 14-10 lead and would help keep the Lady Mustangs in front throughout most of the opening half. Jordan Gutierrez (Albuquerque, NM/Valley High School) would hit back-to-back three-pointers 26 seconds apart to take the Lady Mustangs from a two-point lead, to their largest of the night of eight, 25-17, with eight minutes to play before halftime. Gutierrez would end up going a perfect 4-for-4 from downtown.
The lead would get back to eight a couple more times over the next few minutes with Gutierrez hitting another three and then a jumper by Nalani Hernandez (Tucson, AZ/Tucson High School) with 6:24 to play had WNMU with a 30-22 advantage.
The Lady Aggies ended the half on a 15-7 run to come back and tie WNMU at 37 at the break. The Lady Mustangs used a 7-1 advantage on three-pointers in the first half, hitting at a 41.2 percent clip, while holding USU to a 12.5 percent clip (1-8).
RaTanya Newsome (Tucson, AZ/Tucson High School) drove in for a layup nearly three minutes into the second half to push WNMU back in front, 42-41. Ashley Witherspoon (San Marcos, CA/Mission Hills High School) hit a free throw at the 15:27 mark to tie the game for what would be the ninth and final time at 43.
The Lady Aggies went on a 9-0 run over the next three minutes and would hold the lead the rest of the way. WNMU would make another run to get the deficit back down to six near the midway point of the second stanza on a pair of foul shots by Newsome.
USU would then control the final 10 minutes of the game to pull away from the Lady Mustangs for the hard-fought exhibition victory.
Four Lady Mustangs reached double-digits led by 13 from Ashley Mitchell (Navajo Nation). Gutierrez added 12, 11 from Newsome, and 10 from Hernandez. Hernandez led the way in rebounds with six and steals with three. Newsome dished out seven assists.
WNMU hit 22-of-58 (37.9) from the field, including a 10-of-27 (37) mark from three-point range. At the foul line the Lady Mustangs hit 12-of-18 (66.7). They forced 15 turnovers which led to seven points. WNMU ended up leading for 13:01 of the game and were tied for 5:38.
Stephanie Bairstow and Ingrida Strikas led the Lady Aggies with 15 points apiece.
WNMU will return to action on Nov. 16 with their final exhibition game at Northern Arizona University with game time set for 2 p.m.
