The San Diego State women’s basketball team defeated Boise State at Viejas Arena on Saturday, Jan. 27 to pick up a key conference win and improve their overall record to 14-8.
The Aztecs finished the game with three players scoring in double-digits: Adryana Quezada with 19 points, Kim Villalobos with 17 points and Abby Prohaska with 10 points. Coming off of the bench, SDSU guard Khylee Pepe led the team with five steals.
Entering the game, Boise State was third in the league with 6.6 blocks per game. Broncos forward Abby Muse entered the game second in the nation with 3.4 blocks per game. Coach Stacie Terry-Hutson spoke about the game plan against Boise State.
“We went away from going at the bigs (in the away game),” Terry-Hutson said. “I know that they block shots, I know that Muse is really, really good at that, but you see that Kim (Villalobos) was able to get downhill and we wanted to pull (Muse) away from the basket and go at the other big.”
At the start of the game, Boise State pulled ahead with a 5-0 lead after a 3-pointer by Broncos guard Natalie Pasco. SDSU soon cut the lead to 5-4 after two made field goals by Quezada and Villalobos.
SDSU then took their first lead of the game after a 3-pointer by Jada Lewis. Boise State kept the game close for most of the first quarter before SDSU went on a scoring spree in the final 1:30 of the period. The Aztecs led 20-11 at the end of the first.
The Aztecs continued to score at the start of the second quarter after Quezada made a layup and then two 3-point field goals to extend the lead to 30-16 with eight minutes left in the half. The Aztecs would not hit another field goal for the rest of the period and only scored one more time off of two free throws by Lewis.
Despite not scoring, SDSU was able to hold their lead and only allowed 11 points in the second period to take 32-22 going into halftime. Villalobos spoke about having to battle Muse at the rim.
“It was definitely hard at the basket,” Villalobos said. “But just knowing the game plan which is shot-fake, be aggressive at the rim, and try to get the best shot.”
At the start of the second half, SDSU scored first after Prohaska scored her points of the game off of a layup. The Aztecs went on to dominate the third quarter led by Villalobos, who had nine points in the third.
The Aztecs outscored Boise State 26-13 in the third quarter to make the score 58-35 at the end of the period. In the fourth quarter, SDSU hung on to their lead and shot 57% from the field compared to the Broncos, who shot 46% in the period.
SDSU went on to win 79-54 and ended up shooting 50% from both the field and from behind the 3-point line. Boise State finished the game shooting 42% from the field and 40% from three, with Pasco being the team’s leading scorer with 15 points.
SDSU’s next game will be at Colorado State on Saturday, Feb. 3 at noon. The Scarlet and Black’s next home game will be against New Mexico on Wednesday, Feb. 7th at Viejas Arena at 11:00 a.m.
