SAN DIEGO – The Aztec women's basketball team (5-4) returns home to face UC San Diego (3-5) Friday at 6 p.m.
Aztec Tidbits
• The UCSD game will be streamed on the Mountain West Network with Chris Ello on the call and is available on the newly launched Mountain West app, which can be downloaded on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV and Roku.
• This is just the third meeting between the Aztecs and Tritons and first since 2001.
• SDSU is coming off a huge road 78-77 win at California Baptist last Wednesday. The Aztecs gave the Lancers, who went 26-1 last year, their first loss at home since Feb. 19, 2020. The Aztecs trailed by as much as 11 points in the first half.
• Kim Villalobos (Van Nuys, Calif.) had an extremely efficient night, pouring in a career-high 22 points on 9-for-13 shooting. She became the first Aztec since 2007 (Paris Johnson) to score at least 22 points on 13 field goal attempts or less while playing less than 25 minutes. Villalobos also had a season-high eight rebounds.
• Sophia Ramos had 11 points and a season-high nine assists and committed no turnovers in 39 minutes. Ramos has scored in double-digits in eight of SDSU's nine games.
• Other standouts from the CBU game include Mallory Adams, who had a season-high 17 points and tied a career-high with three assists, Alex Crain, who had five assists the most she has had an Aztec, and Kiara Edwards who chipped in seven points.
• Against CBU, the Aztecs set new season-highs for points (70), assists (22) and had a season-low nine turnovers.
• Mercedes Staples (Centerville, Utah) is shooting 52.0 percent from three this year, which leads the conference and is 10th best in the nation. Sophia Ramos is shooting 48.8 percent from deep, second in the Mountain West and 19th in the nation.
• In her Aztec career, Staples is making 40.9 percent (47-115) of her threes, the best in school history (minimum 100 attempts).
• SDSU has three active players in the top six all-time in career three-point percentage. Staples leads the way at 40.9 percent, Isabela Hernandez is third (38.3%, 49-128) and Sophia Ramos is sixth (36.1%, 117-324).
• The Aztecs are shooting 40.3 percent from three. That leads the conference and is the eighth highest percentage in the nation.
• Sophia Ramos (San Antonio, Texas) is one of four active players in the nation with at least 1,200 points, 400 rebounds, 300 assists and 100 steals in her career. She is the only one of those four who has played 85 games or less.
• The Aztecs officially joined the Jordan Brand family this season, becoming just the ninth women's basketball program in the Jordan lineup.
Opponent Notebook (UC San Diego)
• The Tritons are 3-5 on the year.
• They went 6-9 last year while playing a Big West exclusive schedule.
• They have lost four of their past five games.
• They have two common opponents to the Aztecs. Both SDSU and UCSB lost by double-digits to Cal and both schools most recent game was against California Baptist and both were one-point games. The Aztecs beat the Lancers 78-77 on the road and the Tritons fell to CBU at home 74-73 on Tuesday.
• UCSB beat San Jose State by 20 (81-61) on Dec. 3.
• They are holding their opponents to 59.6 points per game on 33.5 percent shooting from the field and 24 percent shooting from three.
• They commit 17.0 turnovers per game, but dish out 16.0 assists.
• Sydney Brown leads the team in scoring (11.0) and rebounding (7.8).
• Parker Montgomery also scores in double-figures, averaging 10.3 points per game.
• Madison Baxter is shooting 58.3 percent from three (14-24) and 61.1 percent from the field.
• Former Aztec assistant Jesse Clark (2014-18) is in his first year on the UCSD staff.
• Head coach Heidi VanDerveer is in her ninth season at UC San Diego where she entered the year with a 163-50 record. She previously coached in the WNBA and was the associate head coach at San Diego State for the 2007-08 season. She is the younger sister of Tara VanDerveer, the Hall of fame head coach at Stanford.
Series Notes
• The all-time series is tied 1-1
• This will be the first meeting between the two San Diego programs in over 20 years. The Tritons won the last meeting 63-59 at SDSU Nov. 23, 2001.
• The only other meeting was Nov. 28, 1978, a 72-33 Aztec win.