Feb. 22, 2006
SAN DIEGO - In its first of two straight games against top-25 opponents, the San Diego State women's basketball team put up a strong fight against No. 21/18 Brigham Young, but ended up falling to a talented Cougar squad, 67-49, Wednesday evening at Cox Arena. With the loss, the Aztecs dropped to 3-21 overall and 0-14 in the Mountain West Conference, while the league-leading Cougars improved to 21-3 and 11-2 in conference action.
"I think we gave a great effort (today)," SDSU head coach Beth Burns said. "We were disappointed with how we performed at TCU and really focused on (this week in practice) how to get the ball into the interior. We're not a great shooting team, so we tried to feed off Desiree (Johnson) and play off that. I thought everybody did a great job trying to do what we wanted to do. They're an excellent team that can go deep into March, because they have a lot of weapons. I'll take this effort against anybody, anytime. Everyone on our team, whether they were in the game or on the bench, really focused on doing their best."
Aztec junior center Desiree Johnson (Kahuku, Hawaii) had a career and team game-high 19 points and seven rebounds in 32 minutes of action. Johnson, who beat her previous career high of 16 points, also tallied four blocks and three steals. She was helped by senior Michelle Strawberry's (Corona, Calif.) 15 points and six rebounds, while sophomore Shanna Demus (Palmdale, Calif.) contributed a team-best four assists.
San Diego State led just twice in the game at 2-0 on a Veronica Shaw (Phoenix, Ariz.) lay-up and at 4-2 on another Shaw basket. The score was tied on three occasions, before BYU would earn its first advantage at 6-4 on a Dani Kubik lay-up. The Aztecs kept it to a one possession game until the 11:59 mark of the first half when the Cougars went on a 12-3 run to go up by 11 points.
SDSU trailed by just nine at 34-25 going into the locker room, but BYU quickly moved its lead into double figures with a three-pointer by Ambrosia Anderson. The Aztecs got as close as 11 points on four occasions and were behind by 14 with over a minute remaining, but ended up falling by 18 points at 67-49.
The Cougars, who were led by Anderson's 17 points, shot 48.2 percent from the field and owned a plus-11 margin on the boards.
SDSU completes its 2006 home schedule Saturday afternoon against No. 23/22 New Mexico at 2 p.m. in Cox Arena. The game will be the final home contest for the team's three seniors, while two redshirt sophomores will also be honored after their careers ended prematurely earlier this season due to injury.