LAS VEGAS – The San Diego State women’s basketball team (17-9, 6-7) lost at first place UNLV (20-5, 12-1) 75-65 Wednesday evening. The Aztecs trailed by as much as 17 points in the second half but cut their deficit to five points in the fourth quarter before UNLV pulled away late.
“We fought hard, but made some uncharacteristic plays that you can’t do when you’re playing the number one team in the conference,” Head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson said after the game. “We did a good job fighting to get back into the game, but we’ve got to play tighter on both ends of the floor.”
The Aztecs were led by Veronica Sheffey and Kim Villalobos who both had season-highs. Sheffey paced the Aztecs with 20 points while making a career-high four three-pointers. Villalobos finished with 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting.
UNLV made six three-pointers in the first quarter, four of which came from Kiara Jackson who finished with a career-high 27 points. This helped the Rebels score 26 points in the opening quarter. UNLV would make just two more threes the rest of the game.
The Aztecs fell behind by 14 in the second quarter, but a late 9-0 run helped them go into the halftime break down 42-35.
SDSU had another big run to end the third quarter, this time it was a 12-0 spurt to bring the score to 59-54.
The Aztecs held the Rebels to just three fourth quarter field goals but they were whistled for 10 fouls which led to UNLV going 10-for-15 from the line.
STAT OF THE GAME
The Aztecs had more field goals and rebounds than the Rebels, but UNLV attempted 15 more free throws and made 10 more.
THE NOTE
This was just SDSU’s third loss on the road (8-3).
UP NEXT
The Aztecs host Utah State Saturday at 1 p.m.