SAN DIEGO – Behind a dominant first quarter, the San Diego State women’s basketball team (11-3, 5-0) beat Grand Canyon (3-12, 2-3) 87-69 inside Viejas Arena Wednesday night to win their seventh game in a row and improve to 5-0 in conference play.
“We’re on a bit of a winning streak, but we are trying to take it game-by-game and keep our focus on getting better,” Head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson said after the game. “We want to be playing our best basketball in March and so far, we’ve been able to learn through these wins, but we’ve still got a way to go.”
The Aztecs were 13-for-16 from the floor and a perfect 7-for-7 from three in the opening quarter as they raced to a 37-9 lead.
“That might be the best quarter of basketball I’ve ever been associated with,” Terry-Hutson explained. “And I’ve worked at LSU, UCLA, Illinois and some big-time programs. We shot the ball and defended at a high level for 10 minutes.”
SDSU was once again led by a balanced scoring attack with five players finishing in double-digits. Kennedy Lee led the team with 18 points and nine rebounds, Nat Martinez had 17, Naomi Panganiban added 15, Bailey Barnhard had 14 after scoring a career-high 21 at Wyoming Saturday and Nala Williams had 12 points, six assists and no turnovers.
Grand Canyon went on a few runs to cut into SDSU’s lead, outscoring SDSU 14-3 at one point in the second quarter and 15-4 in the fourth quarter to cut the Aztec lead to 10 points, but SDSU finished the game on an 8-0 run.
The Aztecs held a 34-26 advantage in points in the paint and had a 25-15 edge in points off turnovers.
Grand Canyon was led by Chloe Mann’s 13 points.
STAT OF THE GAME I
SDSU shot 51 percent from the floor, 44 percent from three and was a perfect 13-for-13 from the line.
STAT OF THE GAME II
SDSU had 18 assists, their most vs. a DI program this year
THE NOTE I
This is the first time the Aztecs have started 5-0 in conference play since the 2011-12 season.
THE NOTE II
San Diego State is on a seven-game winning streak and six of those wins have been by double-digits.
UP NEXT
The Aztecs play at Utah State Saturday at noon PT.