The San Diego State women’s basketball team started their season 0-2 after losing to the California Baptist Lancers on Friday, Nov. 11 at Viejas Arena. 

The Lancers started the game strong by hitting two three-point field goals, while SDSU struggled to make their shots at the beginning. The Aztecs’ first points came on a hook shot by forward Kim Villalobos. 

At the end of the first quarter, Cal Baptist went 6/10 behind the 3-point line and had a 50% field goal percentage. SDSU only made one of their seven 3-point attempts and shot 31% from the field. Cal Baptist led at the end of the quarter 25-14.

The Aztecs continued to struggle with their shooting at the start of the second quarter, but prevented the Lancers from making their 3-point attempts. However, SDSU kept turning the ball over and making mistakes, like costly turnovers, that prevented the team from gaining any momentum.

SDSU was able to keep Lancer forward and ALL-Western Athletic Conference second-team play Grace Schmidt contained in the first half, keeping her to only six points before the second quarter ended. Cal Baptist led at the half 39-28. 

At the start of the third quarter, the Aztecs’ defense locked down Cal Baptist behind the 3-point line as the Lancers began to struggle with their threes. SDSU’s shots began to fall as Villalobos and Aztec guard Sarah Barcello led the team in scoring by the end of the third quarter. 

Villalobos scored 10 points in the third while Barcello scored 8, both led the team in scoring with 17 and 10 respectively. At the end of the period, the Aztecs had cut the lead down to six with the Lancers leading 58-52. 

Despite stopping the 3-point scoring, Schmidt began to dominate at the rim for the Lancers. She scored seven points in the third quarter, bringing her total to 13 points for the game. SDSU head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson spoke about their plan to guard Schmidt.

“We had a game plan for her early on and then their shooters came out on fire in the first half,” Terry-Hutson said. “So what we decided to do was go one-on-one with her, she’s such a good player we know she’s going to score but we couldn’t let the other guards go off from the three-point line.”

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Villalobos continued to score, but simple mistakes continued to plague SDSU. Aztecs’ guard Jada Lewis hit two clutch threes in the period that was able to help trim the lead to five points for Cal Baptist. 

Guard Abby Prohaska, made a crucial three and then forced a foul on the defensive side to help turn momentum for the Aztecs. Cal Baptist was then called for a double dribble before another clutch three by Lewis cut the lead to two points. 

The Lancers were able to extend the lead to four before a clutch 3-point shot by Cal Baptist forward Kinsley Barrington extended the lead to seven, putting the game out of reach for SDSU with less than a minute left. The Lancers were able to eventually dribble out the ball and won the game 76-68.

Despite being 1/5 from three at the end of the third quarter, Lewis went ⅗ from behind the 3-point line in the fourth quarter. She finished the game going 4/10 on 3-point attempts. 

Lewis spoke about her performance after struggling with her shot at the beginning of the game.

“Coach has a lot of confidence in all of us that we could shoot,” Lewis said. “I need to be ready to shoot all of the time and that’s what I kept repeating to myself and my teammates as well to keep shooting, keep shooting and the basket was wide after that.”

Their next game is against UC Davis at Viejas Arena on Monday, Nov. 13 at 6 p.m.