SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State women’s basketball opened the season with a wire-to-wire 77-51 win over Cal State Fullerton Monday evening.
“Our depth was on display tonight,” Head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson said after the game. “We played quite a lot of people tonight and were still effective. We played hard and we played for each other, and that was apparent by our 22 assists.”
SDSU had five players score between eight and 13 points and 11 Aztecs played at least 10 minutes. Freshman Mayenabasi Akpan led the team with 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting. Newcomers Alayna Kraus and Dionne Madjo each were 5-for-7 and finished with 10 points. Bailey Barnhard nearly had a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds.
Eva DeChent hit a three-pointer on SDSU’s opening possession and the Aztecs never surrendered the lead after that. The Aztecs shot 50 percent or better in three of the four quarters and put the Titans away with an 18-3 run to close the first half.
Defensively, the Aztecs held the Titans to 25 percent shooting from both the field and from three while dominating the glass.
Fullerton’s Dylan Swindle scored 26 of their 51 points.
STAT OF THE GAME I
The Aztecs have a program record six players six feet or taller this season and they used that to their advantage to outscore the Titans 52-10 in the paint and outrebound them 47-27.
STAT OF THE GAME II
11 different Aztecs played within the first five minutes of the game, and all 12 scholarship players scored.
THE NOTE
Prior to the game, the banner was revealed to honor last year’s Mountain West regular season championship.
UP NEXT
The Aztecs host North Texas Thursday at 11 a.m. for their annual field trip game.