Jan. 18, 2012
San Diego St. 77,New Mexico 47
The San Diego State women's basketball team rolled to a 77-47 victory Wednesday over visiting New Mexico to improve to 3-0 in league action and remain the only unbeaten squad in Mountain West play. The win was also the Aztecs' ninth in a row to give the program its' longest such streak since 1997, and allowed them to surpass last season's victory total with a 13-4 overall record. The Lobos, meanwhile, dropped to 6-11 on the year and 0-3 in the MWC.
"Our concern going into tonight was to get paint touches to collapse their zone," said Aztec head coach Beth Burns. "We did maybe our best job to date of having balance on offense. Even though we got perimeter shooting, it came from the inside out and I think that's why we were successful. We didn't force it a lot, we finished well and made really good decisions. We're really pleased overall."
SDSU had four players score in double-figures, including junior Courtney Clements (Long Beach, Calif.), who notched a game-high 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting to go with a season-high three steals. Redshirt sophomore Kiyana Stamps (Moreno Valley, Calif.) was 4-for-7 from beyond the arc and finished with 14 points, while junior Malia Nahinu (Hayward, Calif.) also ended up with 14 as well as a team-best five rebounds. Freshman Ahjalee Harvey (Mountain View, Calif.) was the fourth Aztec in double-figure points with 10 and junior Chelsea Hopkins (Las Vegas, Nev.) contributed seven assists and three steals in 21 minutes.
The Lobos started the evening off with a 5-0 run on a jumper off the glass from Caroline Durbin and a 3-pointer from the right angle by Porche Torrance. San Diego State answered with a 5-0 run of its own to tie the game and the squads were also knotted again at 7-7 at the 16:31 mark of the first half.
From there, the Aztecs scored seven unanswered points, including five by Clements, to move into a lead that they would never end up relinquishing. New Mexico cut it to as few as four points at 18-14 on a triple from Lauren Taylor, but SDSU took advantage of the visitors' 13 first-half turnovers and went into the break up by 17 at 40-23.
The Aztecs came out of the locker room with the hot hand shooting, draining five of their first six shots to jump ahead by 24 points at 51-27. The Lobos would get that down to as few as 18 points with 8:05 left in the game, but San Diego State outscored them 17-6 over the final six minutes to secure the 77-47 victory.
SDSU matched its season highs in both 3-pointers made with nine and in steals with 15. The Aztecs also shot a season-high 51.7 percent from the field (31-for-60) and 50 percent from beyond the arc (9-for-18), while committing a season-low 10 turnovers. UNM finished with 20 giveaways and shot 37.2 percent from the field while allowing an opponent to score over 70 points for the first time this season.
The Lobos were led by Durbin and Torrance, who each finished with 11 points apiece.
San Diego State hits the road again for an early contest Saturday as the Aztecs play at Air Force starting at 11 a.m. PT/Noon MT, before a two-game homestand vs. Wyoming and Colorado State next week.