USAFA, Colo. – The San Diego State women’s basketball team (21-9, 10-7) overcame an 18-point deficit to win at Air Force (16-12, 6-10) 66-63 Wednesday afternoon.
The Aztecs trailed by nine points with 7:53 remaining and then held the Falcons without a field goal for seven minutes as they went on a 17-2 run.
“Air Force did a really good job in the first two quarters,” Head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson said after the game. “I like the fight that our bench players had today. They came in and made some big plays and that’s what we’ve been talking about all season, the ‘We over me mentality. It’s sometimes you, sometimes me, but always us.”
Led by Cali Clark’s 18 points, which tied a career-high, the Aztec bench outscored Air Force 30-8 and 18 of SDSU’s 23 fourth quarter points came from bench players.
The Falcons got off to a blistering start, making six of their first seven threes and shooting 71% in the first quarter en route to 25 points in the first 10 minutes.
The Aztecs would hold Air Force to 38 points the rest of the way on 29.8% shooting. Despite the stiff defense, SDSU had trouble cutting into their deficit and trailed by double-digits for most of the third quarter.
Outside of Clark, Jazlen Green, Erin Houpt and Kaelyn Hamilton had huge contributions off the bench in the fourth quarter. Green played all 10 minutes and scored all seven of her points and had a key defensive stop in the closing seconds. Houpt scored all five of her points in the final quarter and Hamilton had three rebounds and three assists in her five fourth quarter minutes.
The Aztecs were 16-for-18 (88.9%) from the line and are now 40-for-44 (90.9%) from the charity stripe over the last two games.
SDSU edged the Falcons 35-27 in rebounds and 42-26 in points in the paint.
Air Force was led by Madison Smith’s 19 points, 17 of which came in the first half.
STAT OF THE GAME
After the Falcons made 10 field goals in the first quarter, the Aztecs only allowed them to make 14 more over the last three quarters.
THE NOTE
With the win, the Aztecs finished the regular season 10-3 on the road, their best road record since the 2012-13 team which also went 10-3 on the road.
UP NEXT
SDSU has Saturday off and then will wrap up the regular season when they host Fresno State Tuesday at 6 p.m.