Feb. 29, 2012
The San Diego State women's basketball team limited Boise State to just three first-half field goals and forced 26 turnovers to finish out the regular season with a 58-41 victory Wednesday at Viejas Arena. With the win, the Aztecs moved to 22-6 overall and ended their Mountain West title campaign at 12-2, while the Broncos dropped to 14-15 and completed their first year in the MW at 5-9.
SDSU was once again led by junior Courtney Clements (Long Beach, Calif.), who tallied her third consecutive and league-leading 12th 20-point scoring outing of the year with 22 points on 10-of-23 shooting. Point guard Chelsea Hopkins (Las Vegas, Nev.) made five of her six shots from the field for 12 points to go with five rebounds, seven assists and three steals. In her final regular-season home game, senior Sajoyia Griffin (San Antonio, Texas) poured in nine points and freshman Ahjalee Harvey (Mountain View, Calif.) added three assists.
The Aztecs trailed just once in the game when Boise State made the opening basket on a layup from Nicole Brady. After that, the Broncos didn't hit another field goal until nearly 11 and a half minutes later with the home team leading 14-7. SDSU pushed its advantage into double-figures on a 3-pointer by Clements and went into the locker room up 28-14.
The Broncos would get to within 12 points on three occasions in the first eight minutes after the break with the final one coming at 38-26. From there, the Aztecs utilized back-to-back triples from Harvey and Clements to jump ahead by 18 and never saw their lead get down to less than 14 points before finishing with 58-41 victory.
San Diego State, which won its 11th consecutive home game, shot over 45 percent from the field and had 11 steals, while keeping the conference's top scoring offense to only 41 points, a 28.9 shooting percentage and an 0-for-12 performance from beyond the arc. Boise State did manage to outrebound the Aztecs 36-27 and scored 15 of its 41 points at the free-throw line.
The Broncos were led by Keiahnna Engel's 10 points, while Lauren Lenhardt had 10 rebounds in the loss.
San Diego State will take a week off to prepare for 2012 Mountain West Championships, slated for March 7-10 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. The top-seeded Aztecs will take on the eighth-seeded Air Force Falcons at Noon PT in the first game of the tournament on Wednesday.
2012 Conoco Mountain West Championships
Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, Nev.
March 7
Game 1 - No. 1 San Diego State vs. No. 8 Air Force - NoonGame 2 - No. 4 TCU vs. No. 5 Wyoming - 2:30 p.m. Game 3 - No. 2 UNLV vs. No. 7 New Mexico - 6 p.m. Game 4 - No. 3 Colorado State vs. No. 6 Boise State - 8:30 p.m.
March 9 Game 5 - Winners Games No. 1 & 2 - Noon Game 6 - Winners Games No. 3 & 4 - 2:30 p.m.
March 10 Championship Game - 1 p.m.
- All times Pacific Standard Time - All games televised on The Mtn. with the exception of the championship which will be shown on NBC Sports Network - All SDSU games will be broadcast on XTRA Sports 1360AM