Dec. 1, 2001
FORT WORTH, Texas - With two Texans on the bench, a pair of recent National Letter of Intent signees in the stands and a number of Aztec faithful in the stands, the San Diego State women's basketball team felt right at home Saturday night at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum versus Prairie View A&M in its first game of the Cook Children's Hospital TCU Hoops Classic.
It wasn't Cox Arena, but it might as well have been as far as San Diego State was concerned as the Aztecs cruised to a 68-46 victory over the Lady Panthers.
"We were very focused and I think we looked a lot more comfortable in our offense tonight," said SDSU head coach Barb Smith, whose Aztecs have now won two straight and improved to 3-2 with the win. "I was also happy with the we played defense, especially in the post."
Senior Claire Swinbank, a native of Georgetown, Texas, and junior Ashonda Williams led a balanced SDSU scoresheet with 13 points each as all 12 Aztecs on the trip scored.
"We've been bitten pretty hard by the injury bug early on this season so it was nice to be able to spread the minutes around," Smith said.
Freshman Maggie Sauls, who hails from Borger, Texas, saw here first minutes of the season after suffering an MCL injury and scored her first collegiate points. Fellow freshman Heather Wolf also scored her first points as a collegian, finishing with five points.
"Maggie and Heather have both been out with injuries at some point this year," Smith said. "It feels good to get them back into the mix."
San Diego State controlled the game from the opening tap, scoring 12 of the games first 14 points and leading 35-21 at the half.
Prairie View (2-2) used an 11-3 run to pull within 13 points with just under eight minutes to play but never got closer as SDSU held the Panthers to just seven points the rest of the way.
The Aztecs won't have much time to enjoy the win, however, as San Diego State returns to action Sunday at 1 p.m. (CST) versus TCU. The game can be heard live over the Internet at www.goaztecs.com.