WBB 4 pm Saturday: Aggies (24-4 & 14-1) @ Riverside (8-21 & 5-10) The Ags fall 76-62. They're still the Big West champs but this is not the way Jen Gross wanted to see her team play today. This was no fluke by Riverside; they outplayed the Aggies on both ends of the floor and particularly on defense.
You could see this loss coming. The Ags have been coming from behind too often lately and today it caught up with them. These last two road games were perfect set ups for trap games for the Aggies and this was a solid beating from a team that was tied for next to last in the Big West. The Ags trailed most of the game last night against Fullerton too and they are the last place team in the Big West. If it were not for Morgan Bertsch's tremendous 34 point performance last night, the Ags would have lost to the Titans as well.
The 24-5 record speaks for itself but it can also be a bit deceiving because the Aggies have not been playing their best basketball for a few games now and this is when you want your team to be peaking. Hopefully, this will be a wake-up call but it could also be a confidence shaker. It well be interesting to see how this loss affects the Ags in the Big West Tournament next week. Several of the other Big West teams have been playing much better basketball than they were earlier in the season so the tournament is far from a sure thing for the Ags.
Also of note, Rachel Nagel did not play and appeared to be wearing a hefty knee brace on the bench. She suffered the knee injury early in the Irvine game 10 days ago.