March 5, 2011
FT. Collins, Colo. - Colorado State hit 13 of its first 18 shots in the second half to erase an eight-point halftime deficit and hand the visiting San Diego State women's basketball team a 66-51 loss Saturday in both schools' final game of the regular season at Moby Arena. The Aztecs dropped to 12-16 overall and 6-10 in Mountain West Conference play to finish in sixth place in the final league standings, while the Rams improved to 14-15 overall and 7-9 to claim fifth in the MWC.
SDSU senior Paris Johnson (San Diego, Calif.) scored a team-best 10 points, but only two of those came in the second half. Classmate Jessika Bradley (Sacramento, Calif.) had a solid all-around outing with eight points, nine rebounds, five blocks and a pair of steals in 34 minutes of action. Senior Coco Davis (Sacramento, Calif.) had seven of the team's 11 assists and also added eight points.
Just as in the first meeting, the two schools traded leads five times in the first nine minutes of the game with each owning an early three-point advantage. Following back-to-back triples from CSU's Kim Mestdagh, the Rams went up by four points at 18-14, but SDSU immediately responded with a 7-0 run, including a three-point play from Courtney Clements (Long Beach, Calif.) to build its own four-point edge.
Each team reached the foul limit early and the sides made good on their chances at the stripe combining to convert 16 of the 17 attempts. The Aztecs also found success from beyond the arc, hitting four of 10, including one at the buzzer by freshman Melissa Sweat (Bakersfield, Calif.) to go into the locker room up 34-26.
After the break, Colorado State got its eight-point deficit down to only three, as SDSU missed it first two shots and had a pair of turnovers on its first four possessions. With the shot clock winding down, Davis hit a long distance triple for the Aztecs' first points of the half to move back up by six at 37-31.
The Rams would continue their run, however, getting six points in a row from freshman Sam Martin in the paint and took the lead on a long jumper from Meixandra Porter at the 13:30 mark at 42-41. CSU then hit almost every shot it attempted, making 13 of 18 field-goal attempts to go up by nine points at 55-46.
The Aztecs then made six defensive stops in a row, but were only able to get one point on the offensive end, as they still trailed by eight points heading into the final media time out. That would be as close as San Diego State would get, as the Rams outscored it 40-17 in the second half and shot nearly 60 percent to capture the 66-51 victory.
SDSU made only 7-of-27 field goals after the break and ended up with a 36.7 shooting percentage, including a 20 percent mark from beyond the arc.
Colorado State was led by Martin's 21 points with 13 of those coming in the second half, while Mestdagh added 19 and five steals.
The sixth-seeded Aztecs will play their first game at the Mountain West Conference championships on Tuesday at 7 p.m. PT against No. 7 seed New Mexico at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nev. The Aztecs swept the regular-season meetings with the Lobos.