Dec. 2, 2001
FORT WORTH, Texas - San Diego State held things together for as long as it could, but ultimately the fatigue of playing two games in less that 24 hours proved to be too much for the Aztecs.
Just 16 hours after routing Prairie View A&M, SDSU was back on the court at the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum taking on a well-rested, but high-powered TCU squad in its second game at the Cook Children's Hoops Classic.
And for much of the game the Aztecs hung with the Horned Frogs, leading for much of the first half and trailing by just six points midway through the second, before TCU pulled away for a 74-49 victory.
"The first half today was the best half of basketball we've played this season," said SDSU head coach Barb Smith. "We wanted to have our defense control the game and we did that for the first 20 minutes, we just could not sustain it down the stretch."
Junior Jamey Cox scored 11 point and senior Morgan Vargas added a career-high 10 points and a team-leading seven rebounds to pace San Diego State (3-3), which had its two-game winning streak stopped with the loss.
Atim Otii also finished in double figures with 10 points and has now scored in double-digits in 5-of-6 games on the season.
Five ties and nine lead changes highlighted a first half that saw San Diego State led by as many as five points just six minutes before intermission. But TCU (4-2) closed the period with a 14-4 run, turning a five-point deficit into a 32-27 halftime lead.
As the game wore on SDSU lost its legs, going scoreless for over six minutes of the second half, allowing TCU to score 13 unanswered points and take control of the game.
Ashanti Nix led the Frogs with a game-high 15 points, including a 3-pointer with 25 seconds to play that provided the final margin of victory. Sandora Irvin and Grace Gant also finished in double digits for TCU with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
But the Aztecs offensive struggles, mostly due to fatigue, really did in SDSU, which shot a season-low 33 percent from the floor and scored it fewest points this season.
"We missed a lot of easy shots inside in the second half and that really hurt us," said Smith. "But I was really proud of our first half. We put together 20 minutes of basketball today and now we've got to build on that."
The San Diego State women's basketball team returns to action on Thursday, Dec. 6th, when the Aztecs host San Jose State for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off at Cox Arena.