SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State women's basketball team (0-1) hosts California Baptist (1-0) Friday and UC Davis (1-0) Monday for their first home games of the 2023-24 season.
Aztec Tidbits
• The Aztecs lost at Portland 72-58 in their season opener.
• Three Aztecs finished in double-figures: Kim Villalobos (16), Adryana Quezada (14) and Sarah Barcello (12). Quezada was making her Aztec debut after redshirting last year and Barcello's 12 points were her most an Aztec.
• SDSU forced 23 turnovers and had 14 steals.
• The Aztec starting lineup featured two sixth year seniors (Barcello and Prohaska), two fifth year seniors (Lewis and Quezada) and a fourth-year senior (Villalobos).
• The Aztecs are coming off their best season since 2012-13. They won 23 games, tied for third place in the Mountain West and qualified for the WNIT.
• San Diego State held opponents to a Mountain West-low 57.3 points per game last year.
• In 2022-23, the Aztecs had their best assist-to-turnover ratio (1.06) since the 1983-84 season.
• SDSU replenished their backcourt with a pair of transfer guards in Erin Houpt (Mercer) and Jada Lewis (Portland St.). Houpt, a junior, has a career three-point percentage of 41.2% and averaged 12.6 points last season while leading the nation in free-throw percentage (93.9). Lewis comes to SDSU after scoring 906 points and making 207 threes across four seasons at Portland St. Last year she averaged 11.4 points & led the Big Sky with 80 made threes.
• The Aztecs also added F Adryana Quezada after she redshirted at SDSU last season. In 2021-22 at Utah State, she was an All-Mountain West honorable selection after averaging 15.2 points and 7.9 rebounds per game.
• The Aztecs brought in three freshmen guards. The trio of Mia Davis, Alyssa Jackson and Trinity Zamora were ranked as three of the top four incoming freshmen in the Mountain West by Three and D, and Zamora was named the Mountain West Preseason Co-Freshman of the Year.
• SDSU has two players in their sixth year of college (Sarah Barcello and Abby Prohaska) and two in their fifth year (Jada Lewis and Adryana Quezada). Starting forward Kim Villalobos, who started every game last year.
• Villalobos (El Salvador) and Quezada (Puerto Rico) played for their respective countries' senior national team over the summer. Villalobos averaged 15.8 points and 10.2 rebounds per game.
• San Diego State was picked to finish in fifth place in the Mountain West preseason poll.
• The Aztecs non-conference schedule features eight games against teams with winning records and five against teams that made the postseason a year ago. SDSU hosts perennial powerhouse Stanford Dec. 1.
• SDSU will have two games broadcast on national television: Jan. 7 vs. Fresno State on CBS Sports Network and Jan. 20 vs. San Jose State on FS1.
Player Notes
• Kim Villalobos (Los Angeles) led the Aztecs with 16 points Monday, her 26th career game scoring in double-digits.
• Villalobos tied a career-high with four steals, giving her 100 for her career.
• Jada Lewis (Rocklin, Calif.) is one game shy of 100 for her career.
• Sarah Barcello (Phoenix, Ariz.) scored 12 points Monday, her most as an Aztec.
• Adryana Quezada (Frisco, Texas) scored 14 points in her Aztec debut. She redshirted at SDSU last year after being an All-Mountain West Honorable Mention selection at Utah State in 2021-22.
• Khylee Pepe tied a career-high with three steals at Monday Portland.
• Meghan Fiso set a new career-high with two blocks Monday.
Opponent Notebook (California Baptist)
• The Lancers went 22-13 last year and 13-5 in the WAC.
• They won the Women's Basketball Invitational.
• They return five players from last year including Grace Schmidt who made the All-WAC Second Team last year
• The Lancers were picked to finish third in the WAC Preseason poll.
• CBU won at UC San Diego 64-50 in their season opener Monday.
• Grace Schmidt, a preseason All-WAC selection, had 19 points and seven rebounds.
• Head coach Jarrod Olson (12th season) is 257-93 at CBU and has 371 wins overall.
All-time Series (California Baptist)
• This is just the fifth meeting all-time between the two programs. All four meetings were between 2018-2021.
• SDSU leads the series 3-1.
• The Aztecs are 1-1 vs. CBU at home.
• SDSU is averaging 78 points per game against CBU.
Opponent Notebook (UC Davis)
• The Aggies went 16-14 last season and 12-7 in the Big West.
• They were picked to finish third in the Big West.
• Evanne Turner and Tova Sabel combined to average 27.0 points per game last season.
• Turner is closing in on 1,200 career points and has made the most three-pointers in school history.
• The Aggies won their season opener 102-52 vs. the Academy of Art.
• Tova Sabel led all scorers with 24 points.
• Megan Norris had a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds.
• Head coach Jennifer Gross (12th season) won five straight Big West Coach of the Year awards from 2017-21.
All-time Series (UC Davis)
• This is just the sixth meeting all-time between the two programs and the first since 2016.
• UC Davis leads the series 3-2.
• The Aztecs are 2-1 vs. UC Davis at home.
• SDSU's two wins vs. UC Davis were in 2005 and 2006.