Feb. 20, 2008
SAN DIEGO - Playing its second consecutive opponent earning votes in both national polls, the San Diego State women's basketball team dropped its fourth straight Mountain West Conference game Thursday against visiting Wyoming, 55-44, at Cox Arena. With the loss, the Aztecs fell to 13-11 on the season, including a 4-8 mark in league action, while the Cowgirls improved to 21-4 and 9-3 in conference play.
"Defensively, we did everything and then some, holding them to 55 points," said SDSU head coach Beth Burns. "We're a young team and when things don't go our way - a shot doesn't drop - we get frustrated. We turned Wyoming over a bunch, but they did a good job of having us come away with nothing."
Sophomore point guard Quenese Davis (Sacramento Calif.) scored a game-high 19 points for SDSU, with 15 coming in the second half, for her best offensive output in conference action this season. She was helped in the scoring column by redshirt freshman Allison Duffy's (Lakeside, Calif.) 10 points, but sophomore Jené Morris (San Francisco, Calif.), who entered the night ranked second in the MWC in scoring in league games (17.6 ppg.), was limited to just five points.
Duffy contributed six rebounds, while Morris and senior Kate Eveland (Southlake, Texas) each had three of the team's 10 steals. SDSU played without senior co-captain Shanna Demus (Palmdale, Calif.), who sat out with a knee injury, snapping a string of 88 consecutive games played and 70 straight starts.
San Diego State's only lead of the evening came in the opening minutes of the first half, as the Aztecs went up 2-0 on a pair of Duffy free throws and then again at 4-2 on a Duffy jumper. Wyoming went on an 11-2 run with the help of six points by Aubrey Vandiver to jump ahead by seven at 13-6. The Cowgirls advantage grew to as many as 13 on two occasions, but a Morris lay-up at the buzzer had the Aztecs trailing by just nine going into the break, 27-18.
Coming out of the locker room, SDSU was within seven points on a jumper by Davis at 29-22 at the 14:27 mark, but Justyna Posiemska nailed a pair of three pointers, the first by either side in the game, and also added two lay-ups in a span of less than three minutes to give the host a 12-point advantage at 39-27. The Aztecs got to as close as nine points on the second of two Morris free throws with 1:08 left in the game, before the Cowgirls made four straight free throws to close out the victory, 55-44.
Neither team had much rhythm offensively, as Wyoming shot just 33.3 percent from the field to SDSU's 30 percent. The Aztecs forced 20 Cowgirls turnovers, but Wyoming owned a +19 advantage on the boards and made 21 of 28 free throws to avenge a loss to SDSU last season in San Diego.
The Cowgirls had three players score in double-figures, including guard Dominique Sisk, who scored 12 of her 18 points at the stripe.
San Diego State travels to BYU Saturday to face the Cougars for the second time this season, beginning at 2 p.m. MST at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah.