March 13, 2009
SDSU Postgame Quotes in PDF Format
LAS VEGAS - The San Diego State women's basketball team advanced to its second consecutive Mountain West Conference Championship game with a 71-63 victory over UNLV Friday afternoon in the semifinals at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nev. With the victory, the Aztecs, who will face Utah in Saturday's title game at 1 p.m., improved to 23-6 overall, while the Lady Rebels ended their MWC tournament run with a 14-18 mark.
"I couldn't be prouder of our team," SDSU head coach Beth Burns said. "I think sometimes people think when you have a season where you've had a lot of success, that it's all easy. It's not all easy.
"Every game is similar to this (one). We've got to work like crazy to be successful. But at the end of the day, 23 times now, we find a way to win. I'm really proud of our effort."
San Diego State got a team-high 27 points from junior guard Jené Morris (San Francisco, Calif.), who scored eight of the team's last nine points in the final five minutes of action. Morris has now scored at least 20 points in three of her four career MWC tournament contests and has 19 or more in four of five career outings against the Lady Rebels. Morris hit a career-best 11 of 15 free-throw attempts and contributed four of the team's 10 steals on the afternoon.
Morris was helped offensively by senior Jennifer Layton-Bailes (Sacramento, Calif.), who had 14 points, while sophomore Paris Johnson (San Diego, Calif.) had 12 points and a team-best nine boards. Johnson tallied seven blocked shots to set a MWC tournament game record for the second year in a row.
Sisters Quenese Davis (Sacramento Calif.) and Coco Davis (Sacramento, Calif.) contributed 15 of the team's 20 assists on the night.
San Diego State led the entire game, going up by 10 points at the 12:37 mark of the first half on an 11-3 run, capped by a Coco Davis lay-up. The Aztec lead grew to as many as 11 points, before UNLV cut its deficit in half on a Shamela Hampton jumper with just over five minutes remaining. SDSU responded by outscoring the Lady Rebels 8-1 to head in the locker room up 12 at 32-20.
The San Diego State lead stayed in double-figures through most of the second half, jumping to as many as 18 on two occasions. UNLV, which pulled off two upsets to get to the semifinals, didn't go away, outscoring the Aztecs 15-3 to pull all the way to within two points at 63-61 with just 3:19 left.
Morris, however, didn't let it get any closer, scoring two straight jumpers to push SDSU's lead to six and making three free throws in the final 36 seconds to secure the 71-63 victory.
Hampton scored a game-high 29 points for UNLV and also added 11 rebounds. Freshman Jaime Smith had nine points and 10 boards in the loss.
Saturday's MWC championship game featuring SDSU and Utah, the MWC regular-season co-champions, will tip-off at 1 p.m. PT at the Thomas & Mack Center. The game will be televised live on VERSUS, while Chris Ello will have the radio call on Xtra Sports 1360 AM. Live stats will also be available SDSU's official website, www.goaztecs.com.