San Diego State women’s basketball (17-8, 6-6 MW) sought redemption against Wyoming (14-9, 8-3 MW) on Saturday, after a back-and-forth battle in their previous matchup. Unfortunately for the Aztecs, they didn’t bring their A-game and fell by a score of 64-51.
Like the last time the two teams played, the game started off as a dogfight. The Aztecs and Cowgirls traded baskets at the start of the first quarter, highlighted by a game-tying three from forward Adryana Quezada.
However, SDSU went cold and Wyoming got off to a six-point lead late in the quarter. A pair of free throws from guard Erin Houpt brought the lead back to two, but a buzzer-beating shot from Wyoming forward Allyson Fertig made it a 16-12 game at the end of the quarter.
Fertig, who leads the Mountain West in scoring, has a dominant paint presence that is difficult to contain. SDSU allowed nine second-chance points in the first half to their own zero, due in large part to Fertig’s dominance.
“We need to do a better job of boxing out,” said head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson. “We did a decent job for how good of a player she is. But what we can’t have is her score 20 and give up 21 points from the three and foul them… you can’t combine those mistakes.”
Unfortunately for the Aztecs, forward Cali Clark, arguably their strongest matchup for Fertig, got in foul trouble early.
“She picked up two quick ones in the first quarter and then we had to sit her for the rest of the time,” said Terry-Hutson. “It’s a different guard when Cali’s in there.”
The second quarter contained similar themes to the first, as the teams traded buckets, without much variation in the score. Every time the Aztecs put points on the scoreboard, Wyoming had an answer.
Naomi Panganiban hit a late-and-one layup to cut Wyoming’s lead to four, but the Cowgirls concluded the second half with a basket to make it 33-27.
As the third quarter started, similar trends continued for the Scarlet and Black. They got on the board early with a sharp pass by Veronica Sheffey to a cutting Kim Villalobos. However, the Cowgirls responded with a fiery 9-0 scoring run, extending their lead to thirteen.
SDSU clawed back to cut the deficit to seven at the end of the quarter, but they still had a tough hill to climb.
Wyoming opened the fourth with a three to get back to a double-digit lead and did not look back from there. Despite back-to-back baskets from Quezada, Fertig responded with a run of her own to steady the Aztecs’ pushback.
Villalobos was frustrated with the team’s energy late in the game.
“It’s something we’ve been preaching the whole year,” she said. “Being consistent in our efforts. Not just the first one, the second, the third. Just our energy being consistent from the first to the fourth”
Late threes by the Cowgirls capped off the day with a number of late three-pointers, ending any life the Aztecs had left. The three-point battle was a key factor in SDSU’s defeat, as they only shot 1-8 from deep as opposed to Wyoming’s 7-13.
“Wyoming does a good job of denying the pass, so we couldn’t get our shooters open,” said Terry-Hutson. “I knew this wasn’t gonna be a game where we’d shoot a lot of threes.”
SDSU aims to get back in the win column in Las Vegas for a 6:30 p.m. tipoff against conference-leading UNLV on Wednesday, Feb. 12.
