March 1, 2001
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Tempo, turnovers and too many second chances proved to be too much to overcome for San Diego State Thursday night as Colorado State handed the Aztecs an 81-67 loss in front of 2,166 at Moby Arena.
Junior Claire Swinbank scored 18 points and senior Anita Bundage added 13 to lead SDSU (13-13, 5-8 MWC).
Six Rams finished in double figures paced by Shannon Strecker, who led all scorers with 22 points. Strecker also pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds, as Colorado State (20-6, 9-4 MWC) gathered 27 boards en route to a 47-31 advantage on the glass.
The Aztecs also struggle in the turnover department with 22 giveaways to the Rams' 15.
"We've got to find a way to put it back together," said SDSU head coach Barb Smith, whose Aztecs close out their regular season Saturday at Wyoming. "We played a great game at UNLV, but we couldn't keep it going tonight. We didn't play our game at either end."
The Aztecs actually out shot the Rams, 48 percent ot 43 percent, but CSU's advantage on the offensive boards led to 26 more opportunities at the basket. Colorado State finished the game with 78 field goal attempts, the most of any SDSU opponent this season.
Colorado State led 33-24 at intermission and took control of the game just four minutes into the second half, riding a 13-3 run to a 21 point lead, its biggest of the game.
SDSU immediately responded with a 9-2 spurt of its own but never was able to get the deficit back to single digits as the Aztecs got as close as 10 just over two minutes to play.
The first half was all Strecker, as the sophomore center who averages just eight points per game scored 12 in the opening 20 minutes, including four during a 12-2 Ram run that gave Colorado State a 25-12 lead midway through the period.
The Aztecs responded with an 11-3 spurt to pull back within five with just over four minutes to go, but CSU scored five of the last six points of the session to take a nine-point lead into the break.