Jan. 29, 2011
LARAMIE, Wyo. - The San Diego State women's basketball team held Wyoming to just one field goal through the first 14:15 of the second half, but was unable to capitalize, falling to the Cowgirls, 59-51, Saturday afternoon at Arena-Auditorium. SDSU dropped their third in a row to move to 8-11 and 2-5 in conference play, while Wyoming, which made only three, second-half field goals (15.8 percent), moved to 16-4 overall and 6-1 in league action.
Aztec senior Jessika Bradley (Sacramento, Calif.) and sophomore Courtney Clements (Long Beach, Calif.) both scored in double-figures for the sixth-straight outings in the first half alone, finishing with 12 and 16 points, respectively. Bradley also had five blocked shots and pulled down a career-high 13 rebounds for her third double-double of the year, while Clements made a team season-best four triples and had three steals. Senior Paris Johnson (San Diego, Calif.) contributed 10 points, nine rebounds and four blocks for SDSU, which played without senior guard Coco Davis (Sacramento, Calif.) due to injury.
Wyoming got out early, hitting four of its first seven shots to own an 8-3 lead just under three minutes into the contest. The Aztecs, however, answered with a 4-1 run on baskets from Johnson and Bradley to get it back to a two-point game.
The SDSU offense then went scoreless for the next three and a half minutes, as the Cowgirls raced out to a 19-7 advantage before a Bradley rebound bucket ended the drought. The Aztecs finally began to heat up from the field, getting a pair of triples by Clements and one from Sajoyia Griffin (San Antonio, Texas) to highlight a 16-2 run and take the lead at 25-23.
Wyoming answered with four straight points from the post by Chaundra Sewell and also had two 3-pointers by Aubrey Vandiver to race into the locker room up by six points at 36-30.
SDSU held the Cowgirls without a point for the first 4:50 of the second half, as it closed to within just a pair at 36-34. Wyoming didn't get its first field goal after the break until the 12:19 mark to put the host school up 41-35.
The Aztecs' stingy defense continued to limit the Cowgirls to just the one field goal, but couldn't keep them from the free-throw line as they scored seven of their first nine points to keep the lead by three at 45-42. Wyoming's final two field goals of the game were both triples with one coming at the 5:44 mark and the other with 2:30 to play and the score in its favor, 53-44. SDSU closed to six on two occasions, but the Cowgirls finished out the game at the line with six free throws for the 59-51 victory.
The Aztecs made more field goals and had a slight advantage on the boards, but went to the free-throw line 16 times less times and shot 33.9 percent from the field, scoring only 21 points in the second half themselves.
Wyoming, which shot 53.6 percent (15-for-28) in the first half only to make just 15.8 percent (3-of-19) in the second, was led by Vandiver's 20 points and 10 rebounds in playing all 40 minutes.
SDSU completes the first round of league action on Wednesday, when it plays host to Colorado State at Viejas Arena beginning at 7 p.m. PT.