SAN DIEGO – The Aztec women's basketball team (9-2) cruised past San Diego (6-5) 68-45 inside Viejas Arena Saturday afternoon. With the win, SDSU improves to 9-2, giving them their best start in 27 years (1995-96).
"We've really taken pride in our defense this year," Head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson said after the game. "We kind of took a page out of the men's team's book and really focused on our defense and you could see that that really was evident tonight and that we played great defense against a good team."
Sophia Ramos led the Aztecs with a season-high 18 points, making four of her five three-point attempts. Alex Crain had 11 points, her second straight game in double-digits. Mercedes Staples and Asia Avinger each had nine points while Kim Villalobos, who was celebrating her 21st birthday, had six points, five rebounds and five assists.
Both teams struggled immensely on offense in the first quarter, combining to make just one of their first 12 shots. The Toreros didn't score for the first 7:45 while the Aztecs had a scoreless stretch of 8:30.
"I think that was the worst first quarter we've had in a long time, but I knew it was going to be a defensive battle where the first to 60 was definitely going to win this game," Terry-Hutson explained.
An 8-0 Aztec run gave SDSU an 18-5 lead midway through the second and USD never threatened after that.
The Aztecs held the Toreros to just four first half buckets while forcing 13 turnovers.
A 12-2 SDSU run to start the second half put them up 22 points and they never looked back, going up by as much as 25 points.
The Aztecs shot 50 percent from the floor and held the Toreros to 28 percent shooting.
STAT OF THE GAME
SDSU's 9-2 start is their best in 27 years (1995-96).
THE NOTE
The Aztecs were 11-for-17 from three and are 19-for-30 (63%) from deep over the last two games.
QUOTE OF THE GAME
"Protecting our home court means a lot, especially going into conference play. Riding this high and having that confidence will basically give us a lot of success going forward." Alex Crain on being 8-0 at home
UP NEXT
SDSU is off for 10 days when they head to Florida for the Palm Beach Invitational where they'll face Miami (Ohio) and Georgia on Dec. 20 and 21.