Feb. 10, 2015
SAN DIEGO - Winners of three straight, the San Diego State women's basketball team looks to maintain its new-found momentum on Wednesday when it opens a tough two-game road swing with a clash against Wyoming, beginning at 7 p.m. MT/6 p.m. PT.
A live audio stream of the Aztecs-Cowgirls encounter will be available on GoAztecs.com with SDSU alumnus Chris Ello calling the action courtside from Arena Auditorium in Laramie, Wyo. In addition, Wednesday's showdown will feature streaming video courtesy of the Mountain West Network.
Coupled with UNLV's home loss to Colorado State, the Aztecs (9-13, 6-5 MW) took over sole possession of fifth place in the conference standings on Saturday after shutting down a potent Boise State squad by a 57-40 count at Viejas Arena for their third victory in a row. Junior Ahjalee Harvey (Mountain View, Calif.) led all scorers with 16 points, which tied a career-high, while fellow classmate Erimma Amarikwa (Vacaville, Calif.) logged her eighth double-double with 10 points and a personal-best 13 rebounds en route to earning MW Player of the Week honors.
SDSU has cranked up the defense during its streak, yielding just 49.3 points per contest while limiting the opposition to a .331 field-goal percentage, including a .240 clip on three-pointers. As a result, the Aztecs have held their last three opponents' leading scorer to a combined 16 points (5.3/gm) after Funda Nakkasoglu (Utah State), Mimi Mungedi (Nevada) and Deanna Weaver (Boise State) each entered their respective games with double-digit scoring averages.
In addition, the Scarlet and Black has cleaned up its ball-handling considerably over the past three games, maintaining a sizable plus-7 turnover margin while outscoring foes 51-25 off those miscues. Prior to its trip to Utah State, the Aztecs were at minus-5 in turnover department, averaging nearly 20 giveaways per outing.
The defensive trend may continue on Wednesday, since the winning team in the SDSU-Wyoming rivalry has scored over 70 points just six times in the past 32 games dating back to 2000, including a 57-54 Aztec victory at Viejas Arena in the last meeting between the two schools on Jan. 15.
Despite that outcome, the Cowgirls still hold a slim 25-24 edge in the all-time series, including a 15-6 mark in Laramie. SDSU last visited Arena Auditorium in February 2013, when it came away with a 57-51 triumph midway through its 17-game winning streak. Wyoming represents the Aztecs' third-most frequently played opponent behind New Mexico (54 games) and UNLV (50 games).
As a team, San Diego State leads the MW in three-point field goal percentage defense (.275), good for 31st in the nation entering the week, and finds itself among the top half of the conference in several categories, including rebounding defense (3rd - 35.4/gm), rebounding margin (3rd - (+3.2)), scoring defense (5th - 61.9 ppg) and field-goal percentage defense (5th - (.389)). Individually, Amarikwa finds herself in the sixth spot for all games in free-throw percentage (.705) and is seventh in rebounding (7.1/gm). She is also averaging 13.1 points per contest in league play, which ranks 10th.
After tackling Wyoming, SDSU will remain in the Mountain time zone for a battle with second-place Colorado State on Saturday, Feb. 14, starting at 2 p.m. MT/1 p.m. PT.