SAN DIEGO – The Aztec women's basketball team's (23-11) season ended with a 55-45 loss to UC Irvine (25-6) 55-45 to UC Irvine in the first round of the WNIT Friday evening. SDSU finished the season with 23 wins, their most in 10 years.
The Aztecs shot a season low 29 percent from the floor and made just 5 of their 24 three-point attempts. Mercedes Staples led SDSU with 16 points. Yummy Morris was one of three Aztecs with six points and have a career-high five assists.
"It's always disappointing when you end this way because we know we didn't play our best basketball, but I don't want that to diminish the season that we had," Head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson said. "It was a good season, lots of memorable moments. It's a great group of girls and it's been a pleasure to be their coach."
SDSU held leads of 11-5 and 15-9 in the second half but then the Anteaters went on a 13-2 run. The Aztecs retook the lead with an 8-0 run but ended up trailing by one at the half.
UC Irvine started the second half on a 7-2 run and never trailed again. The Aztecs defense played well throughout the evening, but their scoring sputtered, and they couldn't string together buckets.
The Anteaters were led by Deja Lee's 18 points.
STAT OF THE GAME
The Aztecs made just six field goals in the second half and were held to a season-low 29 percent shooting from the field.
QUOTE OF THE GAME
"We got a good group, they bought in, they really tried to do what we asked of them all season. I feel bad for the kids that are done in the locker room because we were hoping that we could play a couple more games. Proud of our effort, proud of our fight, we just didn't make shots tonight." Head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson
THE NOTE
This was SDSU's first loss when holding an opponent under 60 points (18-1).
Aztecs Season Ends with 55-45 Loss to UC Irvine
