By Eli Baldrige, Staff Writer

Finally, the San Diego State women’s basketball team (2-4) is getting a break. SDSU’s win against crosstown rival USD last Tuesday was its fourth game in eight days.

“Coming off of all the games that we had, we haven’t had a lot of time to improve,” head coach Beth Burns said. “We just had some time to mentally focus on what we need to improve on because we haven’t had much time to practice.”

Burns’ team wants to improve, especially after a disappointing start to the season. The Aztecs received votes in both national preseason polls, however, they started off slowly and lost three straight games, all at home, to open the year.

Prior to playing the Toreros, they played a tournament in Reno, where they went 1-1 and played two games in as many days.

Now, SDSU gets some time to rest and prepare.  The team takes on Pepperdine (5-4) tonight, which will be the Aztecs’ only game throughout an 18-day span. They hope it will be a turning point in a season that hasn’t gone as planned thus far.

Burns believes the rest will allow SDSU to refocus.

“To be able to go into the break, 18 days with only one game in the middle, will allow us to really identify and learn so much from these four games and get a whole lot better,” Burns said.

The break is well-deserved. Against USD, the Aztecs battled back from a 12-point deficit to force overtime. Senior center Paris Johnson played 34 minutes and senior guard Coco Davis played 44 of a possible 45 minutes.

The SDSU guards will have their hands full when they take on the Waves.  Pepperdine’s star guard, Jazmine Jackson, leads her team in several statistics, including points, steals and rebounds.  The Waves are also coming off an impressive win against Oregon State in Corvallis, Ore.

But the Aztecs also have some impressive players of its own. Johnson was named the California Bank and Trust Student Athlete of the Week following her impressive performance against the Gophers, where she scored 27 points and ripped down 12 rebounds.