March 2, 2002
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SAN DIEGO - San Diego State gave one of the Mountain West Conference's most powerful clubs all it wanted for 30 minutes. But the team know for its 3-point shooting finally got untracked from long range in the second half as San Diego State let a 10-point lead slip away in a 76-52 senior-night loss before of 634 in Cox Arena.
BYU (19-8, 10-4 MWC), the league's top 3-point shooting team, connected on just 1-for-7 from beyond the arc in the first half and the Aztecs use a stingy defensive effort and some timely shooting to build a 10-point lead five minutes into the second period before the Cougars started heating up from downtown.
Erin Thorn and Melanie Pearson each sandwiched back-to-back treys around a pair of Danielle Chessman free throws to give BYU its first lead since the four-minute mark of the first half.
Two more free throws by Stacy Jensen and another 3-pointer by Pearson completed the 19-2 run, putting the Cougars up by with just under 10 minutes to play.
"We had good energy in our defense during the first half but I really feel like we let down in the second half," said SDSU head coach Barb Smith. "They (BYU) set some really good screens for their outside shooters in the second half and we just could not keep up with them. We just ran out of gas."
BYU's lead reached would reach 17 points before it was all said and done as the Cougars outscored the San Diego State (10-17, 2-12 MWC) 46-23 in the second stanza.
Jamey Cox scored 14 points and Claire Swinbank added 13 for the Aztecs. Tanisha Knight, making just her fourth start of the season, finished the game with 10, while Atim Otii was held to just four but did grab a game-high eight rebounds.
But it wasn't enough to keep up with the high-powered Cougars. Pearson led all scorers with 23 points and Thorn finished with 22 as the duo combined to shoot 9-for-18 from 3-point distance.
The first half was a completely different story for Aztecs, which shot 50 percent from the floor and did a great job of closing out of BYU's long-distance bombers in the opening session.
"It was a great first half even though we started slow," said SDSU head coach Barb Smith. "We picked up our intensity going into halftime but we couldn't keep it going in the second half."
San Diego State trailed by as many as eight points midway through the first half but closed the period on fire and led by seven at the break.
Down 19-11 with nine minutes until intermission, San Diego State used a 10-2 run to pull even, then scored 12 of the half's final 15 points, including a Knight 3-pointer at the buzzer, to take a 33-26 lead into the lockerroom.
San Diego State, which finishes the season in seventh place in the Mountain West's, meet's the league's No. 2 seed, New Mexico, when the Aztecs open conference tournament play Wednesday in Las Vegas.
The game, which tips a Noon (PST), will be televised live in San Diego on Channel 4 San Diego and can also be heard over the Internet at www.goaztecs.com.
"We've got to let go of this season now," Smith said. "It's a new season and we've got a team that we match up with well against in New Mexico coming up in the tournament. It's going to be a defensive battle. They are a well coached team and we've got to use the next to days to prepare for that one and let this season go."