March 7, 2001
LAS VEGAS - San Diego State brought its defensive "A" game to the 2001 Mountain West Conference Tournament but was frustrated on the offensive end all afternoon as the Aztecs were tripped up by New Mexico, 55-49, in a nip-and-tuck first-round game at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Junior Atim Otii scored a game- and season-high 21 points and senior Sophia Sledge went out in style, adding a season-best 17 for San Diego State, which ends its season at 13-15 (5-9 MWC).
Three players finished in double figures for New Mexico (18-11, 8-6 MWC), paced by Miranda Sanchez's 15 points.
"(The game) was a heartbreaker," said SDSU head coach Barb Smith. "I think our team played outstanding defense. Our game plan worked for us, we just had trouble scoring."
The Aztecs used a stingy defensive effort to take a 21-19 lead at intermission after forcing 14 Lobo turnovers and holding New Mexico to just 8-for-23 shooting from the field.
New Mexico, which got 12 points each from Jordan Adams and Molly McKinnon, broke out of its offensive woes coming out of the break, however, opening the period with a 10-0 run and holding SDSU without a point for the first 6:13 of the half.
SDSU, which never trailed by more than eight points, kept things close and sliced UNM's lead to just 48-47 following Sledge's career-tying-high fourth 3-pointer of the game with 31 seconds to play.
But that's as close as the Aztecs would get as New Mexico scored seven of the game's final nine points to hold off SDSU.