Jan. 14, 2012
LAS VEGAS - In a contest featuring the top two squads in the conference, the San Diego State women's basketball team outlasted host UNLV 66-62 in overtime Saturday afternoon at Cox Pavilion. With the victory, the Aztecs claimed their eighth win in a row and started the conference campaign 2-0 for just the second time in the Mountain West's 13-year history, improving to 12-4 overall. The Lady Rebels, meanwhile, dropped to 13-5 and 1-1 in league action.
Junior Courtney Clements (Long Beach, Calif.) notched her fifth 20-point scoring out of the year, finishing with exactly 20 points on 9-of-18 shooting to go with a team-best eight rebounds for the Aztecs. Sophomore Kiyana Stamps (Moreno Valley, Calif.) had 14 points, six rebounds and three steals in playing nearly the entire game, while junior Chelsea Hopkins (Las Vegas, Nev.) added 11 points, including nine in the second half and overtime, seven assists and three steals.
San Diego State had a four-point advantage at 54-50 with under a minute left in regulation and could have iced the game at the free throw line. Three different Aztecs, however, each missed the front end of a 1-and-1 in the final 39 seconds as UNLV made both of its free throws and got the game-tying basket from guard Mia Bell with six seconds remaining to send it to overtime.
In the extra five minutes, the Lady Rebels struck first with a pair of free throws, but Stamps answered the next time down the court with her only triple of the game to put SDSU in front by one. The Aztecs also led by only one with under two minutes left, before getting three consecutive points from senior Kalena Tutt (Long Beach, Calif.) for their biggest advantage of overtime at 64-60.
UNLV battled to get to within a pair, but Hopkins converted both of her free throws with 10 ticks left on the clock to preserve the 66-62 win.
The game featured 13 lead changes and 10 tie scores with the Aztecs going up by as many as seven points in the second half at 41-34, after the Lady Rebels were in front by six at the 8:14 mark of the first 20 minutes of action.
SDSU was outrebounded for just the second time this season (48-42), but had five fewer turnovers and made three of its five shots from the field in overtime.
UNLV was led by Bell's 16 points on 7-of-14 shooting and Lenita Sanford's 14 points and 10 rebounds.
San Diego State returns to Viejas Arena for a Wednesday evening contest against New Mexico beginning at 7 p.m. PT.