LAS VEGAS – The Aztec women's basketball team's (15-16) season came to an end Monday evening after a heartbreaking 63-60 loss to the No. 2 seed New Mexico in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Tournament.
"This hurts because I thought we played a good defensive game and we got stops when we needed to," Head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson said. "I'm proud of our girls for putting us in a situation to win the game. We had control of it, the ball just didn't bounce our way."
The Aztecs trailed by one with 13 seconds left and gave the ball to Sophia Ramos, their leading scorer, who got downhill through contact and banked it off the glass but was whistled for a push off with seven seconds left. SDSU then fouled and the Lobos made both free throws to set up one last chance for the Aztecs but Ramos' three-pointer came up just short.
New Mexico jumped out to a 16-4 lead in the first five minute of the game. The Aztecs didn't buckle though and tightened up on defense and responded with an 11-2 run.
"The first half we played really great defense," Terry-Hutson explained. "We got down early and fought back and held them to eight points in the second quarter. New Mexico is a very good offensive team and we've held them under 70 points two out of the three times that we played."
Despite trailing for the majority of the game, SDSU didn't trail by more than five from the second quarter on. In the third quarter, both teams shot well and were trading baskets while each team shot 50 percent from the field.
In the fourth quarter, it was the opposite, with both teams struggling to make baskets especially from three where the two squads each were 2-for-10 from deep.
Sophia Ramos led SDSU with 18 points. Mercedes Staples had 12 points and Mallory Adams had 11 points and nine rebounds. Kim Villalobos finished with 8 points and 10 rebounds.
The Lobos were led by Jaedyn de la Cerda's 26 points.
STAT OF THE GAME
The Lobos scored 16 points in the game's first 5:30 and then just 10 points for the final 14:30 of the second half.
QUOTE OF THE GAME
"These kids are fighters and they laid everything out on the line tonight and that's all that a coach can ask for." Head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson
THE NOTE
The Aztecs finished the year with 15 wins, their most wins in a season since 2012-13.