The San Diego State Aztecs women’s basketball team beat Georgia Southern Eagles University 65-57 in a thriller Saturday morning thriller in Viejas Arena.
Before the third quarter, it looked like SDSU (3-1) would blow out Georgia Southern (3-1) and put them away early in the game as they did in their first home game. It was clear that even though they were leading the entire first half, the Aztecs were not playing at their best. In the first half, they led by as much as 14 points, but they were clearly lacking energy and their shots were not falling.
Georgia Southern came out of the half blazing as the Aztecs continued to struggle to keep their foot on the throttle and put away their opponent. Mental mistakes and turnovers led to a comeback from the Eagles and caused the Aztecs to trail by three points going into the fourth quarter.
During the fourth quarter, the Scarlet and Black came alive and everything started clicking for them. The Aztecs went on a 14-0 run and took the momentum out of the hands of Georgia Southern.
“The message for the game was: character and growth. It was how do we respond using our character and learning from experiences to grow,” head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson said when asked about how her team played. “I thought we did a really good job when we got down pretty big, there was no hanging of the heads, we buckled down and got stops. That’s really refreshing to see with this team.”
The Aztecs received vital contributions from four out of their five starters. Senior Sophia Ramos finished the game with 13 points, junior Mallory Adams finished with 12 points, and senior Mercedes Staples finished with 10. However, the player of the game was by far freshman Asia Avinger who finished with 14 points, six assists, and eight rebounds.
“I would just say, my teammates around me. Everybody comes to practice every day ready to work, we have a great bond, and that’s what really helps us get better each and every day so we can carry on to the game” Avinger said when asked what inspires her gameplay.
Mental errors and silly mistakes caused the victory to almost slip out of SDSU’s hands. The Aztecs did not shoot the ball particularly well as they went 35% from three and 43% from the field. The Aztecs also committed a lot of unnecessary fouls and turnovers that led to easy points for Georgia Southern.
“Film! We will go back and watch the film. We will use that as our teaching tool. With a quick turnaround with UAB we won’t do much on the floor tomorrow, but we will watch a lot of film,” Terry- Hutson said when speaking about improving on the mistakes the team made.
With only one loss so far in the season, the Aztecs will play their fifth game at Viejas Arena against UAB on Nov. 22. The game will be another opportunity for SDSU to correct their mistakes and polish their skills before conference games start. The rest of the season should be exciting to watch as the Aztecs have shown that they are here to play.
