It’s been a little over a week since San Diego State experienced its shocking loss to the No. 9-seed Air Force in the Mountain West quarterfinal round.
Arguably having one of the best regular-season performances in recent history, the Aztecs were the regular-season champions with a 25-4 overall record and 19-1 in the Mountain West. This also came with numerous regular-season honors, including Mountain West Player of the Year and All-Mountain West Team Nala Williams, Sixth Player of the Year Kaelyn Hamilton, All-Mountain West Team Naomi Panganiban and Coach of the Year Stacie Terry-Hutson.
This unit was the clear favorite to take home the trophy in Las Vegas.
That wasn’t the reality, though. SDSU’s defense was fairly lackluster on March 8, allowing the Falcons to knock them off, 83-76. Despite the regular-season success, that loss was enough for them to be left out of the NCAA Tournament.
“Air Force is a very good team and going into that game, we could’ve taken them a little more seriously,” sophomore forward Bailey Barnhard said. “But ultimately, you have bad games and I think multiple people on our team had bad games.”
However, SDSU women’s basketball isn’t done just yet.
It was announced on Sunday evening that the Aztecs were invited to play in the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (WBIT), keeping postseason play on the table.
“These kids want to play. These kids are motivated. These kids are winners and they want to get that nasty taste out of their mouth,” Terry-Hutson said. “No one wants to end their season on a loss, so our goal is to win another championship and raise another banner.”
SDSU will be hosting as one of the 4-seeds in the bracket and are set to take on UC Irvine in the first round on March 19, but there are some major conflicts that come with that. Since the first-round and second-round games from the men’s NCAA Tournament will be held on March 20 and 22 at Viejas Arena, the Aztecs won’t be able to play on their home court.
They will be competing in the University of San Diego’s Jenny Craig Pavilion due to the conflict of March Madness. Although it isn’t where they’re most familiar, the team is glad they’ll be playing in San Diego.
“It will feel a little weird but I, personally, am really excited for it,” Barnnhard said. “Just super thankful that we get to sleep in our own beds, just have our same gameday routine as we would a home game in Viejas.”
Williams echoed Barnhard’s thoughts.
“Same for me as well. I haven’t played at that arena yet but because it’s in the San Diego area, I’m able to sleep in my own bed and to have my own routine and just do things that I would personally want to do.”
Even though the Aztecs will have some form of home-court advantage, they will have to play their best brand of basketball to take down the Anteaters. UC Irvine was 26-6 overall and won the Big West regular-season championship with a 17-3 conference record before falling to Hawai’i in overtime during the conference semifinals.
Not to mention, the Anteaters have two players averaging double-digit points, Hunter Hernandez at 19.9 and Jada Wynn at 15.1. The Aztec defense will have to perform better to walk out of this game with a win.
“They have outstanding guard play and a forward that can shoot the ball really well too,” Terry-Hutson said. “We’re familiar with this team and we are very respectful of all that they do … It’s going to be a battle, but I would expect nothing less. That’s the reason I wanted to play in this tournament, because there’s great teams and it’s only going to help us get better.”
Terry-Hutson expects fans to show up for her team and make it feel like a home game, even though the team is not at Viejas Arena. Everybody in that locker room wants the “nasty taste” of the Air Force loss to be put behind them, and, to do that, they will need to take care of business tomorrow at 6 p.m.
“All kids, college age and under, are getting in free, so we’re trying to create an environment that’s going to be exciting for us and for our girls. They deserve to play in front of a packed house,” Terry-Hutson said.
