San Diego State women’s basketball grabbed a dramatic away victory against the San José State Spartans, 63-62 on Saturday afternoon to earn their second road conference win of season.
The Aztecs (16-9, 7-5 Mountain West) handled business in the Provident Credit Union Event Center in a game where they were down 12 points early in the second quarter. Adryana Quezada and Jada Lewis led the Aztecs to overcome the deficit as they both finished with 15 points to help snatch the win.
With the Aztecs down 62-61 with 18 seconds remaining on the game clock, Lewis got the putback layup to fall to give them a 1-point advantage.
The defense wouldn’t allow a game-winning attempt from the Spartans as time ran out.
Head coach Stacie Terry-Hudson jokingly talked about how that last offensive play was drawn up.
“Jada to drive that was the call, yes, but not to miss the layup, get the offensive rebound, have a scrum and then throw it up- but I’m glad it went in,” Terry-Hudson said. “Like I said, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.”
The Aztecs saw struggles early in their defense as they gave up 21 points in the first quarter. The quick start by the Spartans, early shooting struggles,and losing the rebound battle would be reasons for the Aztecs falling to the 12-point deficit.
“We can’t give up 21 points in a quarter, it puts a lot of pressure on our offense if we don’t,” Terry-Hudson said. “ I thought this game and the last game against New Mexico we did a decent job defending. We struggled in the low post-guarding (forward Amhyia) Moreland, we made some adjustments.”
Those adjustments were made right after that first quarter as the Aztecs outscored the Spartans in the last three quarters with a 50-41 margin with different strategies offensively and defensively.
The Aztecs’ defense forced the Spartans to 25 turnovers throughout the game as they scored a total of 24 points off turnovers. SDSU won the turnover battle with a margin of 25-15, only allowing 11 points off turnovers against.
The adjustments made on offense were to draw fouls and get on the free throw line. The Aztecs went 18 of 21 on the charity stripe to combat the slow start and shooting struggles.
Terry-Hudson was asked for her thoughts on the team’s road performance and the grit they showed.
“We did, we didn’t play very smart though,” Terry-Hudson said. “We made some errors and just some uncharacteristic type stuff. We got to learn to be a little bit better on the road as far as our discipline and our locked into the game plan.”
The Aztecs will continue on the road for their next game as they will face the Nevada Wolf Pack at Lawlor Events Center on Wednesday, Feb. 14 at 6:30 p.m.
