Jan. 24, 2012
SAN DIEGO -
The San Diego State women's basketball team committed just four second-half turnovers and had a +13 margin on the boards to down visiting Wyoming 56-45 and earn its 11th consecutive victory Tuesday at Viejas Arena. With the win, the first-place Aztecs remained undefeated in league play at 5-0 and improved their overall record to 15-4, while the Cowgirls dropped to 6-12 on the season and 2-3 in conference action.
SDSU was led by junior Courtney Clements (Long Beach, Calif.), who notched her seventh 20-point scoring outing of the season and her third in the last four games with 21 points on 8-of-16 shooting. Clements had 16 of the team's 30 first-half points and also tallied six rebounds. Classmate Chelsea Hopkins (Las Vegas, Calif.) produced another outstanding all-around effort with her nine assists, nine rebounds and seven points. The Aztecs also got key contributions from two true freshmen off the bench with Ahjalee Harvey (Mountain View, Calif.) posting nine points, including three triples, and Erimma Amarikwa (Vacaville, Calif.) logging a career-high nine boards.
San Diego State trailed just once the entire evening when Wyoming converted its first basket of the game - a triple from Ashley Sickles - for a 3-2 advantage at the 16:15 mark of the first half. The Aztecs responded with a 3-pointer of their own by Clements, igniting a 7-0 run to put the host school up by six points. SDSU led by as many as seven at 11-4, but was only in front by two with just under four minutes left until the break.
The Aztecs finished out the half on a high note with seven unanswered points as the Cowgirls managed just one field goal over the final 6:23 to put the score at 30-21 heading into the locker room.
San Diego State added to its lead early in the second half, jumping up by double-figures at 34-23. The Cowgirls would cut it to seven at 37-30, but the Aztecs nailed a pair of 3-pointers by Clements and Harvey to move out to a 13-point advantage with 10:21 left to play.
Wyoming continued to stick around and had a chance to get its deficit down to single digits with 3:13 remaining, but Sickles missed an easy lay-up and Hopkins found Harvey on the right wing for another triple, as the Aztecs went on for the 56-45 victory.
After having nine first-half turnovers, San Diego State had just four in the second half and outrebounded its opponent for the 17th time in 19 games this season. The Cowgirls were 5-of-8 from beyond the arc in the first half, but went 0-for-5 in that category after the break and made only 15 of their 47 shot attempts (31.9 percent) on the evening.
Wyoming had two players in double-figure scoring with Kayla Woodward scoring 13 and Sickles tallying 11.
San Diego State completes its longest homestand of the 2012 conference campaign on Saturday when the Aztecs play host to Colorado State beginning at Noon PT. The game is being televised live on CBS Sports Network from Viejas Arena.