Dec. 22, 2000
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State women's basketball team just couldn't wait three more days for Christmas and decided to dole out the presents early this year, giving its coaches and fans a 63-49 victory over California Friday at Cox Arena.
The victory improved SDSU to 5-5 on the season, its best start under head coach Barb Smith and the first time the Aztecs have been .500 after 10 games since opening the 1996-97 season with the same record.
Junior Tanisha Knight led all scorers with 15 points and has now finished in double figures in all 10 games this season. Sophomore Jamey Cox added 12 points and five assists and junior Anita Bandage came off the bench to score a season-high 11.
"We said all along this was going to be a benchmark game for us and that it would measure where we were at this point in the pre-conference season," Smith said. "I think our players are now starting to see the rewards of their hard work. I think they are starting to see that they have the ability to be a pretty good team if they continue to work hard."
The Aztecs were certainly working hard on the defensive end, employing a full-court press to force Cal (3-6) into 24 turnovers and a 36-percent shooting performance, including 0-for-7 from three-point range. And after once again getting off to a slow start, that defensive effort began to translate in to points in transition."
"Our defense was working, our game plan was working and it all added up to a victory," said Smith. "Our defense was really what got us going and we were able to get some easy buckets off of turnovers."
However, for the second straight game, San Diego State dug itself an early hole and trailed California by as many as eight points before catching fire midway through the period and going on an 11-0 run to take 17-14 lead with 3:45 to go. The Aztecs, who would never trail again, closed the period with a 6-1 spurt to lead 26-19 at the break.
That lead reach double digits just four minutes into the second half and grew to as many as 13 on two occasions before the Golden Bears got back in the game with an 8-0 run, including a pair of free throws from leading scorer Courtney Johnson, to cut SDSU's lead to 49-44 at the 7:38 mark.
But the Aztecs once again ratcheted up the defense holding Cal to just five points the rest of the way to put the game on ice.
San Diego State will take the next four day's off to enjoy the Christmas holiday before returning to campus for practice on Dec. 27 in preparation for its Dec. 30 game against Northern Arizona at Cox Arena.