News & Notes
• The Aztecs return home for their next three games, starting off with Incarnate Word (San Antonio, Texas) on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. Following this game, the Aztecs will host the SDSU Thanksgiving Classic with games against TCU and Cal Baptist
• Chris Ello (12th season) will have the call courtside for Sunday's game. A link to the audio-only broadcast is located on the women's basketball schedule page on GoAztecs.com
• The Aztecs are coming off their best game of the young season, an 83-72 win at Cal State Fullerton on Thursday.
• SDSU had four players score at least 15 points and were led by Téa Adams' 21 points, which set a new career-high. The freshmen duo of Sophia Ramos and Mallory Adams also set new career-highs with 19 and 16 points each. While Najé Murray, the leading returning scorer from last season, chipped in 17.
• Those four players, who are all underclassmen, accounted for 73 of the Aztecs' 83 points.
• The Aztecs went 0-for-7 from the three-point line at Santa Clara. This was the first time the Aztecs failed to make a three-pointer since March 6, 2015 against Nevada in the Mountain West Tournament.
• The Aztecs are averaging just 12 turnovers per game, the 17th best rate in the country.
• The Aztecs' backcourt trio of Téa Adams, Najé Murray and Sophia Ramos are all averaging more than 33 minutes per game. This group is responsible for 65 percent of the Aztecs' points and 75 percent of their assists so far. They are also grabbing 41 percent of SDSU's rebounds despite all of them being 5'9" or shorter.
• Zayn Dornstauder had an impressive game in her first regular season game as an Aztec, scoring nine points and grabbing six rebounds. Due to that performance, the 6'3" redshirt junior from Canada, earned her first collegiate start at Santa Clara.
Scouting the Cardinals
• Incarnate Word is 0-4 so far on the season.
• They have suffered losses to Arizona State, Grand Canyon, South Dakota and Houston.
• Starr Omozee is leading the team in scoring (10.5 ppg) and rebounding (8.5 rpg). She had 19 points and 10 rebounds Friday against Houston.
• As a team they are shooting just 29.2 percent from the field and 24.7 percent from three.
• They are being outrebounded by seven boards per game.
• Head Coach Christy Smith is in her third season at Incarnate Word. She previously spent time as an assistant with Valparaiso, Purdue and Arkansas.
Téa Party!
• Téa Adams, who entered the year with zero career starts, has been the Aztecs' leading scorer in all three of their games (four if you count their exhibition vs. Biola). She had a career-high 21 points at Cal State Fullerton.
• Adams showed flashes of brilliance last year but was inconsistent from the field and shot just 28 percent. However, this year her field goal percentage is up to 46 percent and she is scoring in a variety of ways at the rim and in the paint.
• With Geena Gomez and McKynzie Fort graduated, an increase in minutes was expected for Adams. In fact, her playing time has doubled from a season ago. After averaging 16.6 minutes last year, she is now playing 33.67
• An aggressive playmaker, Adams has done a great job of not only getting to the line, but also knocking down her free-throws. Last Thursday at Cal State Fullerton, she was a perfect 7-for-7 from the charity stripe and is 12-for-13 on the season.
• Adams has been a force on the glass as well and has pulled six exactly six rebounds in every game this season.
Youth Movement
• The Aztecs started two freshmen, two sophomores and one junior in the season opener against Hawai'i. That group had a combined 33 career starts entering the game.
• The freshmen duo of Sophia Ramos and Mallory Adams earned the starting nod in the season opener, marking the first time two freshmen started the season opener for the Aztecs since 2003 (Michelle Elliott and Courtney Fritz).
• The Aztecs' backcourt trio of Téa Adams (sophomore), Najé Murray (sophomore) and Sophia Ramos (freshman) are all averaging more than 33 minutes per game. This group is responsible for 65 percent of the Aztecs' points and 75 percent of their assists so far. They are also grabbing 41 percent of SDSU's rebounds despite all of them being 5'9" or shorter.
• Freshman point guard Sophia Ramos (San Antonio, Texas) had her best game to date at Cal State Fullerton on Thursday. She scored 19 points on an array of runners and floaters, while also knocking down a pair of threes. A high IQ player, she is shooting a team-high 57 percent from the floor.
• Her freshman sidekick, Mallory Adams (Frisco, Texas) also had the best game of her young career at Cal State Fullerton. She scored 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Most impressively, Adams has just one turnover in 81 minutes played so far this season.
Taking a Different Approach
• With the Aztecs losing four starters and six players total from a year ago, this year's team was bound to look different The Aztecs returned just 34.6 percent of their scoring from last season.
• With sharpshooters Geena Gomez and Lexy Thorderson, the Aztecs averaged 19 three-point attempts per game, which accounted for 33% of their field goal attempts. This season, the Aztecs are putting the ball on the deck and creating off the dribble and averaging 11 three-point shots per game, which is just under 20 percent of their total FG attempts.
• Last season, McKynzie Fort and Geena Gomez led the Aztecs in scoring in nearly every game. This year, the Aztecs have four players averaging at least nine points a game, which gives the offense more balance. This was on full display Thursday at Fullerton when four Aztecs had at least 15 points.
Aztecs Return Home to Host Incarnate Word
