Feb. 25, 2017
Final Stats | Box Score | Photo Gallery
San Diego State women's basketball succumbed to the best team in the Mountain West, as the Aztecs fell to the conference champion Colorado State, 80-46, at Viejas Arena on Saturday afternoon.
With the loss, San Diego State falls to 4-12 against conference opponents and the team is now 9-18 overall. Colorado State, meanwhile, clinched its fourth-straight MW Championship with the victory, becoming the first women's or men's Mountain West team to clinch a conference title in four consecutive seasons. The Rams are now 14-2 in MW play and are 22-6 this season.
"Kudos to Colorado State; they played a great game," head coach Stacie Terry said. "We have to figure out a way to score against that zone. We've been working hard the last two weeks against the zone offense and we're getting a lot of reps at it. We're just going to keep plugging away at it and see what we can do."
Junior McKynzie Fort led the Aztecs offensively for the 17th game this season with 15 points. Classmate Geena Gomez grabbed a team-high six boards and dished out five assists, while fellow junior Khalia Lark also brought down six rebounds.
The game started off promisingly for the Scarlet and Black, who did not allow a Ram field goal for nearly three minutes to open the contest. Led by long balls from Gomez and Fort, the Aztecs trailed just six points at the end of the first period.
Early in the second quarter, the Aztecs were able to keep the game within reach after threes by Lexy Thorderson and Kymberly Ellison, and a jumper by Fort for the 23-22 Colorado State advantage. But the Rams opened it up with a 14-point run, eventually increasing that margin to 17 points after 20 minutes of play for the 44-27 score in Colorado State's favor.
San Diego State was unable to get going in the third quarter, putting up its fewest points in a single quarter this season with four, while allowing 15 Colorado State points. SDSU trailed, 59-31, at the end of the third frame.
The Scarlet and Black was unable counteract that third frame and, despite recording a game-high 15 points in the final quarter, the Rams knocked down eight baskets on 15 attempts for the final 80-46 win.
Colorado State shot a blistering 52.8 percent from the floor (28-for-53), drilling 12 3-pointers on 20 tries while making 75 percent of its shots from the charity stripe. The Rams had three players score 15-or-more points, led by Elin Gustavsson. On the other hand, SDSU shot 27.3 percent (18-for-66), getting six treys and going 4-for-5 at the free-throw line. The Rams won the battle on the glass, 44-31, while the Aztecs grabbed more offensive boards, 11-8. CSU recorded more assists, 20-13, more steals, 7-4, and more blocks, 2-1.
"We had a moment in there were we could've quit," Terry said. "I called a timeout, burned an extra one just to remind them that we have to fight through this. We're playing for something bigger than this game. I thought they did a good job of refocusing and coming back and doing a better job. That's a positive, and that's what we're going to take into the next game."
San Diego State heads to Air Force for its final road contest of the season, a 7 p.m. (MT) game on Tues., Feb. 28.