San Diego State women’s basketball (17-3, 11-0 Mountain West) defeated the Nevada Wolf Pack (7-14, 3-8 MW), 67-54, on Saturday at Viejas Arena. The Scarlet and Black extended their winning streak against the Wolf Pack to 13 games, remaining undefeated in Mountain West Conference play at 11-0.
“I just think we were trying not to let them get to their spots,” sophomore guard Kaelyn Hamilton said. “There are some talented, young, athletic kids, so they were hitting some tough twos on us, but we were trying to just not make things easy for them.”
Although the Wolf Pack won the opening tip, they did not score the game’s first basket. On the Aztecs’ first possession, sophomore forward Bailey Barnhard converted two points 35 seconds into the game.
Following Barnhard’s basket, the Aztecs went on a 6-0 run within the first two minutes of the game, with sophomore guard Naomi Panganiban hitting a jumper and Barnhard going for another layup.
By the end of the first quarter, the Wolf Pack trailed the Aztecs by five points, 19-14.
Momentum shifted in the second quarter as the Wolf Pack began to find its rhythm and the Aztecs’ momentum slowly started to die down. From the start of the second quarter, it was back-and-forth plays. Both teams missed shots, but once one scored, the other responded.
A specific play that had the entire arena screaming with excitement came when sophomore guard CJ Latta found Panganiban, who made a three-pointer from the logo as the shot clock expired and the arena erupted. The bucket gave the Aztecs a 30-20 lead.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson said. “We work on that in practice. We’ve had quite a few buzzer beaters this year, it’s Alyssa, her or Nat. They work on it [and] they have a deep range. She’s a playmaker and a gamer, when the lights are on, she’s at her best.”
Somehow, the Wolf Pack was slowly sneaking up on the Aztecs. Sophomore guard Nat Martinez committed a traveling violation, allowing Nevada sophomore forward Kendra Hicks to hit a three-pointer off an assist from freshman guard Skylar Durley.
With that basket, the Wolf Pack trailed the Aztecs 30-27 at halftime, outscoring SDSU 13-11 in the second quarter.
“We knew they were going to be physical and really good on the glass,” Terry-Hutson said. “They kind of took us out of what we wanted to do. Pushing up on us, up to touch on some of the ball screens. It really kind of slowed us down in the second quarter.”
At halftime, Terry-Hutson told her team what it would take in the second half: getting back to playing Aztec basketball.
“What we talked about was rebounding and them taking us out of what we wanted to do, but really get back to who we are again,” Terry-Hutson said. “We’ve talked about this: we’re playing from a different vantage point. We are the hunted; we are not the hunters anymore.”
By the third quarter, the closest the Wolf Pack got to the Aztecs was when Durley made a jumper in the paint, cutting the game to two points at 34-32.
Another unique play came when Hamilton stole the ball on a Nevada inbound pass and scored a layup with seven seconds left, giving the Aztecs a 53-41 lead.
“What I love about Kaelyn is she’s working really hard to get better at everything that she’s doing,” Terry-Hutson said. “Not only am I challenging her to play defense on the opponent’s best offensive player, she’s also doing a great job of making decisions on the offensive end.”
In the fourth quarter, the Aztecs scored 14 points while the Wolf Pack added 13.
The final Aztec basket came from Barnhard with three minutes and 16 seconds left. Nevada scored seven more points in the closing minutes but could not catch the Aztecs, who won 67-54.
SDSU shot 45.3% from the field, 29.4% from three-point range and 93.3% from the free-throw line. Nevada finished with 33.3% from the field, 30.8% from three-point range and 66.7% from the free-throw line.
The Aztecs had 11 layups against Nevada, but Terry-Hutson emphasized she wants more from her team.
“I want more [and] we’ve gone away from playing a little but more in transition, turned ourselves into a little bit of a half-court offensive team, which is good that we can play that way,” Terry-Hutson said. “So we got to get back to who we were and what we were doing, playing fast, sharing the ball.”
Four Aztecs scored in double digits, Barnhard with 13, Williams with 11, Panganiban with 16 and Hamilton with 11.
The Aztecs will hit the road to Phoenix, Arizona, to play Grand Canyon on Wednesday at 5 p.m. They will return home on Wednesday, Feb. 11, to host Colorado State at 6 p.m at Viejas Arena.
“They’re a really good team [and] going to their place is going to be a challenge,” Terry-Hutson said. “I think they have some really great pieces, and they’re playing better every time they get on the floor together. We got to make sure we are prepared because it’s going to be a hard-fought battle. I anticipate it being a close game.”
