Sometimes a player posting a season-high effort is enough to carry a team to a win.
So when the San Diego State women’s basketball team had three players hit their high-water scoring marks against the University of Pennsylvania, the outcome was never in doubt after the first quarter.
“It started with our shoot around at 8:30 this morning,” said head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson. “I love how we share and you’ll hear me on the sidelines ‘saying move it, share it, share it’ and I thought we did a good job of that.”
Senior forward Adryana Quezada topped the 20-point plateau for the first time in Scarlet and Black, going for 21 points, with 9 rebounds and a career-high tying 5 assists. The Aztecs won their fourth straight, knocking off the Quakers 74-49 on Saturday afternoon at Viejas Arena.
“I’m very comfortable,” said Quezada, who is in her second year with the program after transferring from Utah State. “I have total confidence in my teammates and I’m looking for them to get that shot.”
Senior guard Meghan Fiso set a new career-high with 15 points off the bench, including 5-of-6 shooting from the field and a perfect 3-of-3 from the land of plenty. Senior guard Sarah Barcello added her personal SDSU-high of 13 points while also knocking down both of her triple tries.
SDSU (4-2) limited Penn (3-2) to 16 points in the first half, holding the visitors to 23.1% or below shooting from the field in three of the four quarters and 25.5% overall in the game.
“We’ve been working really hard on our defense and I thought it showed today,” Terry-Hutson said. “Penn is a very good team — they have three really good scores. That was the primary emphasis of our defense.”
Penn junior guard Stina Almqvist led all scorers in the game with 24 points, but the Aztecs’ defense gave her nothing easy, as she shot 5-of-16 from the field.
It was the first time the Aztecs had held an opponent to below 30% shooting from the field in a game since holding Nevada to 25.9% on Feb. 9 of last season.
Every player that played 10-or-more minutes for SDSU put points on the scoreboard.
“We’re really proud of them because everyone contributed either on the offensive end or the defensive end,” Terry-Hutson said. “The connectivity was really good today and then it showed offensively.”
After sophomore guard Natalija Grizelj recorded her first NCAA basket in the win against Westcliff, the Aztecs were able to celebrate another NCAA-first.
Senior guard Emaya Trahan, who is a walk-on and had previously served as part of the SDSU scout team, made her NCAA debut with 2:25 remaining in the game.
“(Trahan) has come in with this mindset that ‘nothing is given and everything is earned,’ and she has been practicing at a high level and she deserved those minutes,” Terry-Hutson said. “I’m gonna try to get her and (freshman guard) Ellie (Chen) and (Grizelj) in the game more because they’re working just as hard as the other players and they deserve it.”
The Aztecs continue their five-game homestand against UC San Diego on Tuesday. Last season, SDSU needed a 26-point fourth quarter to rally for a 72-60 win at UCSD.
“I’m excited to participate in that rivalry,” Quezada said. “It’s exciting to play in a game like that and just feel like everybody’s doing everything they can.”
Tipoff against the Tritons will be at 6 p.m. at Viejas Arena.
