Jan. 19, 2002
LARAMIE, Wyo. - Aztecs senior Claire Swinbank turned in yet another solid outing but it wasn't enough to lift San Diego State to victory as the Aztecs dropped their third straight to open conference play with a 86-51 loss to Wyoming before 1,005 at the Arena-Auditorium.
Swinbank led the Aztecs with 16 points and Valencia Howard added 12 for San Diego State. But the Aztecs (8-8, 0-3 MWC) shot just 32 percent from the field, including just 10-of-33 in the second half when the game really got away from SDSU.
"It's tough to win in this conference on the road and this is our third straight road game," said SDSU head coach Barb Smith. "I'm excited to get home, but we've got to figure out how to win on the road."
Carrie Bacon led all scorers with 19 points and Darci Arsine finished 14 points for Wyoming (9-7, 2-2 MWC), which won its seventh straight home game and capped its first ever Mountain West Conference sweep with the win.
San Diego State trailed by just 10 points at the 16-minute mark of the second half, but could manage just one field goal over the next nine minutes as the Cowgirls used a 22-2 run to build a 30-point lead.
Wyoming's lead reached as much as 38 points with just under two minutes to play as the Aztecs never seriously mounted a comeback bid.
"Today was just a day when things didn't go our way," added Smith. "We weren't getting stops on the defensive end and we had a tough time scoring. We just put too much pressure on our defense."
The loss was the largest of the season for the Aztecs, who also gave up the most points of the year and allowed an opponent to shoot over 50 percent for the first time.
Atim Otii grabbed a game-high eight rebounds for San Diego State, which out-rebounded Wyoming, 38-36.
Five ties and two lead changes highlighted the first 12 minutes of the game until Swinbank drilled a long jumper and pair of free throws for a 19-15 SDSU lead with eight minutes remaining in the period.
However the Cowgirls scored 17 of the game's next 20 points to forge a 10-point advantage and a 36-26 halftime lead.