Feb. 28, 2009
SAN DIEGO - In a battle between two of the conference's top squads, the San Diego State-TCU game did not disappoint, as the Aztecs held on to complete an undefeated home regular season with a 68-63 victory Saturday at Cox Arena. With the win, SDSU claimed its 16th consecutive home game, improving to 14-0 in 2008-09, and moved past TCU into second place in the league standings at 11-3. The Aztecs are now 20-6 overall, posting the program's first 20-win campaign in 12 years, while the Lady Frogs saw their six-game win streak end as they fell to 19-9 and 11-4 in conference play.
San Diego State had two players top the 20-point barrier as senior Jennifer Layton-Bailes (Sacramento, Calif.), playing in her final regular-season home contest, had a career-high 21 points, including 14 in the first half, to go with six rebounds. Junior Jené Morris (San Francisco, Calif.) had an outstanding second half, notching 19 of her 21 points, and adding four assists and a game-high seven steals.
"(The Lady Frogs) are the best offense in the league and they told us that we are the best defense in the league," SDSU head coach Beth Burns said. "We really wanted to play them within the circles, because they are so big once you get to the paint. We had a little jitters to start, but the job that Jené Morris did (defensively) on Helena Sverrisdottir really took them out of their rhythm and was able to give us some separation."
Junior guard Quenese Davis (Sacramento, Calif.) tallied her first double-double of the year with a season-high 10 assists and 11 points in 38 minutes of action. Sophomore Paris Johnson (San Diego, Calif.) had six points and six boards before fouling out at the 5:34 mark of the second half.
The game began with four ties and four lead changes through the first 10 minutes, as the Aztecs broke out of a 12-12 tie with a 12-0 run to go up 24-12 with five minutes left until the break. The 12-point edge grew to as many as 13 on two occasions, but then fell back to 12 heading into the locker room at 33-21.
TCU came out determined to make it a game in the second half, as the Lady Frogs used some hot shooting to chip away at the SDSU advantage. The lead was in single-digits at nine points on four occasions before a 11-2 TCU run, fueled by six free throws, drew the visitors even at 56-56 with 5:12 left in the game.
The Lady Frogs were in the double-bonus at the stripe with over eight minutes remaining, as both of SDSU's centers, Johnson and freshman Candace Chambers (Seattle, Wash.), fouled out of the game.
After TCU came all the way back to tie the contest, the Aztecs scored seven points in a row, including a triple by Davis and two steals and lay-ups by Morris. The Lady Frogs were within three twice, including with 11 seconds left, but Davis hit two free throws to preserve the 68-63 win.
SDSU shot 44.8 percent in the second half and ended the afternoon with 14 steals, forcing 23 turnovers by a TCU squad that had entered the contest ranked six nationally in fewest giveaways (13.7/g).
The Lady Frogs had two players record double-doubles, including Sverrisdottir, who had 19 points and 12 boards, and TK LaFleur, who posted 16 points, 10 rebounds and four steals.
The Aztecs will complete conference action next week with a pair of road games Wednesday at Colorado State and Saturday at UNLV. Both games will feature a live audio call, with Chris Ello, and live stats on SDSU's official website, www.goaztecs.com.