Feb. 24, 2007
PROVO, Utah. - The San Diego State women's basketball team had an early 10-point lead, but went scoreless for a span of over 15 and a half minutes, as the Aztecs fell to the first-place Cougars, 65-41, Saturday at the Marriott Center. With the loss, SDSU dropped to 12-13 overall and 5-9 in league play following its final MWC road game, while BYU improved 20-7 and 11-3.
Junior Shanna Demus (Palmdale, Calif.) scored 10 of her team-high 15 points in the first half, while junior Shannon Clay (Inglewood, Calif.) also reached double-figures with 12 points. Freshman Quenese Davis (Sacramento, Calif.) had six assists and six boards, but was limited to just two points on a bucket in the second half.
The afternoon began with an early Aztec advantage as SDSU hit eight of its first 15 field-goal attempts, going up 19-12. BYU cut its deficit down to five on a basket and a pair of free throws, but the Aztecs reeled off a 6-1 run with four points by Clay and a layup off a long outlet pass by Demus to build their largest lead at 27-17.
The Cougars finally got their offense going, getting a pair of three-pointers from Mallary Gillespie and going into the break on a 6-0 run to close the gap to just a one-point SDSU lead at 31-30.
BYU came out of the locker room with a long-range three-pointer by Gillespie and shutout the Aztecs for the first 13:18 of the second half, reeling off 27 unanswered points to lead 57-31. SDSU finally got on the board at the 6:42 mark on a Demus lay-up and would score only eight more points the rest of the way before falling to BYU, 65-41.
San Diego State shot 42.4 percent from the field before the break, but was just 4-for-31 in the second half to end the game with a 28.1 field-goal percentage.
The Cougars were led by Gillespie's 17 points and Dani Wright's 15 points, while tallying 10 blocked shots and 20 more free-throw attempts.
San Diego State heads home for its final two conference outings Wednesday against TCU and Saturday versus New Mexico. Saturday's contest is senior night and is a doubleheader with the Aztec men's team, starting at noon PT.