Jan. 23, 2003
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State women's basketball team remained winless in its young Mountain West Conference season, falling to first place Brigham Young, 61-46, Thursday at Cox Arena. With the loss, the Aztecs dropped to 0-2 in conference play and 6-9 overall, while BYU, which has won each of the last four meetings between the two schools, improved to 12-4 and 3-0 in the MWC.
The Cougars opened the game with a 6-0 run before Aztec freshman Veronica Shaw (Phoenix, Ariz.) made a jumper to put SDSU on the scoreboard. San Diego State's only lead in the game came at the 13:13 mark of the first half, when the Aztecs led 7-6 after a Shaw lay-up. Shaw, who averages 7.4 points per game, ended the contest against BYU with a team-high 14 points.
Later in the first half, BYU pulled ahead by five points, 11-16, before freshman Aztec Amber Fouse (Compton, Calif.) made a lay-up and then forced a turnover and got fouled. Fouse converted both of her free throws to bring SDSU to within a point of the Cougars, 15-16, with just under five minutes remaining in the half. BYU's Ambrosia Anderson buried three jumpers in the Cougar's final four possessions of the first half to put Brigham Young up by nine, 26-17, at the half.
Cougar Erin Thorn scored first for BYU at the start of the second half, draining a three-pointer to enlarge BYU's lead to 12 points. The Cougars went up by as many as 24 points before Aztec senior Jamey Cox (Waterloo, Iowa) made five consecutive free throws to spark a 15-0 SDSU scoring run. San Diego State pulled to within nine points, 44-53 at the 4:16 mark, but could not overtake BYU, as it dropped the 61-46 decision.
Thorn finished the game with a team-high 20 points and four rebounds, while Danielle Cheesman and Anderson each added 12 points in the victory. BYU also posted a MWC season-high 12 blocks in the game.
SDSU continues its Mountain West Conference schedule with a Saturday meeting against the visiting University of Utah at 5:05 p.m. in Cox Arena.