Feb. 10, 2000
SALT LAKE CITY - Just five days after knocking Colorado State out of the Mountain West Conference's top spot for one of its biggest wins of the season, the San Diego State women's basketball team suffered one of its most difficult losses of the year, falling to first place Utah, 63-38, at the Huntsman Center Thursday night.
"I was disappointed with our effort tonight," said SDSU head coach Barb Smith following the game. "Coming off our big win over Colorado State I expected more. But we just weren't up to the task. We shot the ball very poorly, but a lot of that had to do with Utah. Their defense was outstanding."
SDSU shot just 16-for-63 from the field against the Utes, easily a season low as its two leading scorers, senior Mary Apiafi and freshman Jamey Cox were held to a combined 13 points on 6-for-23 shooting. Freshmen Kacee Wheeler and Nicole Bemi-Morrison each finished with a team-high nine points to lead SDSU.
Utah's Lindsay Sodja and Lauren Beckman were the only two players to finish in double figures with 15 and 12 points, respectively.
SDSU (7-14, 2-6 Mtn. West) opened the game ice cold, missing its first eight shots and turning the ball over six times to open the contest as Utah (15-5, 7-1 Mtn. West) ran out to a 13-0 lead in the game's first eight minute.
A long jumper by Wheeler at 11:45 of the first finally ended the drought, but the Utes scored 14 of the game's next 15 points to take a 24-point lead -- their largest of the half. SDSU finally began finding the goal towards the end of the half but still trailed 31-10 at the break.
Things didn't get much better for SDSU in the second half, after slicing the Ute advantage to 18 points at the 13:36 mark, Utah went on a 12-2 run over the next 5:34 to take a 52-23 lead with 8:02 to play. Utah then took its largest lead of the game -- 30 points -- just 1:30 later when Erin Gibbons canned back-to-back treys. The Aztecs never again pulled closer than 23 points.
San Diego State will try to get things back on track when it travels to Brigham Young on Saturday for a 3:00 p.m. tip from the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah.