Glenn Connelly / Photo EditorLAS VEGAS 8212; With four minutes left in regulation of the Mountain West Conference Tournament Championship game, the San Diego State women’s basketball team trailed Utah by eight points.
At that moment, senior guard Quenese Davis huddled her team together on the court and put things into perspective.
“We got this,” the eventual tournament MVP said to her teammates. “We’ve just got to stay together, get some big stops and make some big plays on the other end.”
Four minutes of basketball later, SDSU was tied with the Utes.
Then, after five minutes of Aztec-dominated overtime, SDSU was the MWC Tournament champion, winning 70-60.
“As a group, as a team, as a program,” head coach Beth Burns said. “We couldn’t be more excited to cut down the nets as the Mountain West Conference Tournament champions … We came in with the eye of the tiger and I’m thrilled with the outcome, but I’m not surprised with the outcome.”
The game was close throughout, but the well-documented ineptitude the Aztecs have on the offensive glass caught up with them. At one point, Utah had 12 offensive rebounds to SDSU’s three. That, combined with hot shooting from the Utes, is what gave Utah the commanding lead late in the game.
But a few clutch boards from junior forward Allison Duffy and junior center Paris Johnson were all Davis and senior guard Jené Morris needed to stage a comeback. All but six of the Aztecs’ final 22 points came from those two seniors, who both earned all-tournament honors.
This was the third consecutive year SDSU has played in the championship game of the MWC Tournament, but the first time it came away with a win. To say that was a fact weighing on Morris’ mind would be a tremendous understatement.
“Pure bliss,” Morris said. “I mean, it’s nice for the first time not to be up here crying because we lost. We made it to the championship game two years in a row and lost … We knew they had a great team and could come back at any time. The fact that we stuck together was amazing.”
When asked if the win was especially gratifying considering the way the regular season panned out, there was no hesitation in Morris’ response.
“Definitely. That was our goal coming into the tournament. We weren’t really happy with the way we played during the regular season. This was our time to show how good we actually can be.”
The Aztecs know they will be playing in the NCAA Tournament, but will have to wait until this afternoon to find out who they will be playing.
