Jan. 31, 2009
SAN DIEGO - Senior Jennifer Layton-Bailes hit the game-winning basket with just three seconds left, as the San Diego State women's basketball team erased a one-point deficit to defeat the visiting Colorado State Rams, 62-61, on Saturday afternoon at Cox Arena. With the victory, the Aztecs, who were outrebounded by 19, improved to 14-5 on the season, including a 5-2 mark in conference play. Colorado State, meanwhile, fell to 7-14 and 2-6 in Mountain West action.
"At the end of the day, our growth (following this game) was that we were poised enough to make plays," Aztec head coach Beth Burns said. "We really played well down the stretch and never got unnerved when they started to get a little scary separation around the five-minute mark. We stayed with our stuff, got two (points) at a time and got stops and made plays when we needed to."
SDSU was led by sophomore center Paris Johnson (San Diego, Calif.) who recorded her fourth-consecutive double-double with 20 points, on 9-for-10 shooting, and 12 rebounds to go with four assists, four blocked shots and two steals. Layton-Bailes (Sacramento, Calif.) had 11 points, including the game-winner, and posted four of her five rebounds in the second half. Junior Jené Morris (San Francisco, Calif.) tallied 10 points and four assists, while Quenese Davis (Sacramento, Calif.) also scored 10 points and posted seven assists to move to second in the Aztec career record book with 419.
Despite the Aztecs' 11-game home win streak entering the afternoon, it was Colorado State that came out of the gate with the most energy, charging out to an early 5-0 advantage the first minute and a half of the game. SDSU finally found the scoreboard on back-to-back baskets by Johnson to get to within one.
Following two CSU free throws, the two sides combined to make three-straight three pointers with two going to Aztecs for the 10-10 tie. The Rams continued to lead for most of the second half until the home team put together a 12-4 run to head into the break up by seven at 34-27.
That seven-point advantage grew to 10 with 14:34 left in the game, but quickly dwindled down to just two points as CSU outscored the Aztecs 11-2 to get to within one at 41-40. After a Morris tripled, the Rams took the lead with a pair of free throws and a three-pointer by Bonnie Barbee at 45-44.
Following two more lead changes, Colorado State went up by seven points at the 7:29 mark and later held a five-point advantage at 56-51.
Two free throws by Jerica Williams (San Diego, Calif.) kick started a 7-0 Aztec run to put the home team ahead by two. Barbee, however, struck again from beyond the arc on left baseline, sinking her fourth three-pointer to put the Rams ahead by one, 59-58.
The two sides traded buckets in the paint and Johnson blocked a Colorado State shot attempt to set up the Aztecs' final trip up the floor trailing by one, 61-60. With just four seconds left, Davis drove to the basket and missed the jumper, but the rebound fell to the right of the basket where Layton-Bailes was waiting for the rebound and the game-winner, 62-61.
Colorado State dominated the boards all afternoon, finishing with a 48-29 advantage, including a 22-5 margin on the offensive glass to put up 14 more field-goal attempts. The Aztecs survived by shooting 48.1 percent from the field and forcing 13 second-half Ram turnovers.
CSU was led by Zoi Simmons and Barbee, who each scored 12 points apiece in the loss.
San Diego State will have its second consecutive home game on Wednesday, as the Aztec finish out the first round of conference play against UNLV at 7 p.m. PT at Cox Arena. Chris Ello will have the live audio/video call on SDSU's official website, www.goaztecs.com.