Utah State Women's Basketball Announces 2011-12 Schedule

Utah State University women's basketball Head Coach Raegan Pebley announced the 2011-12 schedule Tuesday [Aug. 9] with the regular-season beginning at Wyoming Nov. 11. For the first time since the 2006-07 season, the Aggies will start the season on the road. Utah State will play 15 regular-season home games, including an exhibition game against Western New Mexico Nov. 4.

"In building our non-conference schedule, our goals were to challenge and prepare our team,” Pebley said. “We did this by scheduling as many 2011 regional postseason tournament teams as we could. We also continue playing our in-state rivals and compete against teams that will contend for the top slots in their conference."

The Aggies will play nine teams that reached either the NCAA Tournament, the Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) or the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI) in 2010-11, including four teams from the Western Athletic Conference. Both WAC Tournament champion, Fresno State, and WAC regular-season champs, Louisiana Tech, reached the NCAA Tournament, while Nevada advanced to the WNIT and Idaho made an appearance in the WBI. South Dakota State and Montana round out the quartet of teams that advanced to the "Big Dance" last season. In-state rival BYU and Wyoming both advanced to the WNIT along with UC Riverside.

"Starting on the road against Wyoming and South Dakota State is a great opportunity,” Pebley said. “Both of these teams were in postseason tournaments, are well coached and will have great crowds. We will need to be extremely focused and intense in our fall workouts and conditioning to be prepared for these challenges."

After facing five Beehive state opponents last season, the Aggies will take on only three this season. Utah State will host Weber State Nov. 16, as well as hosting BYU as part of a doubleheader with the USU men's team Dec. 17. The battle between the Aggies and the Cougars will be televised live on KCSG Television in cooperation with Cis-Com Productions. Finally, USU will take on Utah Valley Jan. 7, 2012, in Logan.

Once again, the WAC will play a double round-robin format. This season, there will be eight teams in the WAC with the departure of Boise State. The Broncos will still appear twice on the Aggies schedule, as the team's will meet in Logan Nov. 22 and in Boise Dec. 22.

"We felt that continuing to play Boise State both home and away prepares us for the challenge of game planning and adjustments made when this occurs within conference play," Pebley added.

The Aggies will open WAC play with a duo of road games at New Mexico State (Jan. 12) and at Louisiana Tech (Jan. 14). The battle with the Lady Techsters is the first of two-straight games against NCAA Tournament teams, as USU will host Fresno State Jan. 19. Utah State ends conference play with three-straight home games against Idaho (Feb. 25), Hawai`i (March 1) and San Jose State (March 3).

For the second-straight season, the WAC Basketball Tournament will be held at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., March 7-10. Last season, USU was the third seed and fell in the semifinals to eventual tournament champion, Fresno State.

This season, Utah State also has four doubleheaders with the USU men's basketball team.

The Aggies bring back three starters and 10 letterwinners from last year's squad that finished 18-15 and advanced to the second round of the WNIT. First-team all-WAC honoree and reigning WAC Newcomer of the Year, senior forward Ashlee Brown is back to lead Utah State. Brown averaged 15.2 points and 8.4 rebounds per game last season.

Aggie basketball tickets will be available by contacting the USU Athletics Ticket Office at (435) 797-0305 or at 1-888-U-STATE-1 (1-888-878-2831) for more information or visit the Utah State athletics website.

Fans can follow USU women's basketball at Twitter and Utah State athletics.

2011-12 Utah State Women’s Basketball Schedule

Date	Opponent	Location	Time
Friday, Nov. 4	Western New Mexico#	Logan, Utah	7 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 11	at Wyoming	Laramie, Wyo.	7 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 13	at South Dakota State	Brookings, S.D.	1 p.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 16	Weber State	Logan, Utah	7 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 19	at UC Irvine	Irvine, Calif.	3 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 22	Boise State	Logan, Utah	7 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 25	UC Riverside	Logan, Utah	7 p.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 30	at Montana	Missoula, Mont.	7 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 2	at Montana State	Bozeman, Mont.	7 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 10	at Idaho State	Pocatello, Idaho	2:05 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 17	BYU!	Logan, Utah	2 p.m.
Monday, Dec. 19	Northern Arizona	Logan, Utah	noon
Thursday, Dec. 22	at Boise State	Boise, Idaho	7 p.m.
Tuesday, Jan. 3	Asbury	Logan, Utah	7 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 7	Utah Valley!	Logan, Utah	2 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 12	at New Mexico State*	Las Cruces, N.M.	5 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 14	at Louisiana Tech*	Ruston, La.	6 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 19	Fresno State*	Logan, Utah	7 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 21	Nevada*	Logan, Utah	7 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 28	at Idaho*	Moscow, Idaho	3 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 2	at San Jose State*	San Jose, Calif.	8 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 4	at Hawai‘i*	Honolulu, Hawaii	8 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 9	*Louisiana Tech!**	Logan, Utah	5 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 11	*New Mexico State!**	Logan, Utah	2 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 16	at Nevada*	Reno, Nev.	8 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 18	at Fresno State*	Fresno, Calif.	7 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 25	Idaho*	Logan, Utah	7 p.m.
Thursday, March 1	Hawai‘i*	Logan, Utah	7 p.m.
Saturday, March 3	San Jose State*	Logan, Utah	7 p.m.
Wed.-Sat., March 7-10	WAC Tournament	Las Vegas, Nev.	TBA