Feb. 18, 2007
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State women's basketball team committed a season-low 11 turnovers and shot 41.5 percent from the field to earn its first victory over Wyoming in seven years, as the Aztecs defeated the visiting Cowgirls 55-47 Sunday afternoon at Cox Arena. With the win, SDSU, which has claimed each of its last three home games, improved to 12-11 overall and 5-7 in conference play. The Cowgirls dropped to 16-8 and 7-5 in league action.
"(Wyoming) has an offense that is really hard to guard, and I think that was a key," SDSU head coach Beth Burns said. "They lead our league in three-point shots and when we were able to take that away from them, we were able to create a great pace and really made good decisions."
After a disappointing loss at Air Force on Thursday night, the Aztecs bounced back to earn their 11th victory at home this season in 14 tries, despite being without their leading scorer junior Jennifer Layton (Sacramento, Calif.) due to an ankle injury for the second straight outing.
SDSU had three players finish in double-figure scoring, including junior Shanna Demus (Palmdale, Calif.), who scored 10 of her team-high 12 points in the first half. Freshman Quenese Davis (Sacramento, Calif.) and senior Desiree Johnson (Kahuku, Hawaii) both had 10 points and combined for 13 of the Aztecs' 34 rebounds. Davis added a team-best seven assists for the third straight outing, while LaSandra Dixon (Azusa, Calif.) made her first career start, chipping in three points, two assists and no turnovers in a season-high 22 minutes.
The home team found itself in a hole early, as Wyoming took a 4-0 lead, all on free throws, to open the contest. The Aztecs finally got on the board at the 16:49 mark on a Demus jumper to cut the deficit in half. The Cowgirls would answer right back to maintain their advantage, but another Demus jumper and a layup by sophomore Tamika Lipford (Oceanside, Calif.) tied the score at six.
The two schools would be tied three more occasions with the last one coming at 21-21. SDSU ended the first half with the only two baskets in the final 4:23 by either team to go into the break up by five at 26-21.
The Cowgirls quickly made it a one possession game coming out of the locker room, getting to within a pair twice at 26-24 and 28-26. The Aztecs, however, went on a 7-0 run to go up by nine at 35-26. The SDSU lead grew to double-figures at 11 on a layup by Demus with 12:19 left in the game and never dropped to fewer than eight points the rest of the way including at the final buzzer.
Wyoming was led by junior Hanna Zavecz, who scored all of her game-high 17 points in the second half. The Aztecs held the Cowgirls, who average a league-best 7.61 three-pointers per game, to just three triples on 16 attempts or 18.8 percent shooting from beyond the arc.
The Aztecs play their final two regular-season road games next week when they travel to Colorado State Thursday, followed by a trip to BYU on Saturday.