David J. Olender / Staff Photographer

There were 51 turnovers, a total of 72 missed field goals and a combined free-throw percentage of 63.3. As Arizona women’s basketball head coach Niya Butts put it, “That was pretty ugly.”

Even with the lack of beauty and glamour, though, the San Diego State women’s basketball team was able to pull out a 57-38 victory against the Wildcats on Saturday night at Viejas Arena.

“It was a bit of an ugly game,” SDSU head coach Beth Burns said. “But we’re still glad we won.”

The Aztecs made just 37.1 percent of their field goal attempts and turned the ball over 24 times against Arizona. From the 3-point line, they made only three of their 11 attempts. Yet as bad as they were on the offensive end of the floor, they were as good on the defensive end. SDSU forced 27 Wildcat turnovers and allowed Arizona to make just 15 of its 48 shot attempts.

“We butter our bread with defense,” Burns said.

Arizona’s best player, forward Ify Ibekwe, came into Saturday night’s game averaging 13.5 points and 18.5 rebounds per game. The Aztecs, however, held the Associated Press All-America honorable mention player to 11 points and 11 rebounds, and forced her to turn the ball over 10 times.

“I liked for us that we had to guard somebody like Ibekwe,” Burns said. “I thought we did a nice job on her and I really think we took them out of their rhythm.”

The game against the Wildcats marked the first time SDSU played a Pac-10 opponent since it fell 77-49 to Stanford in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season. According to Burns and junior center Paris Johnson, it meant a lot for the Aztecs to have a better showing against another Pac-10 opponent.

“The last thing I said to the team was, “We are the preseason pick in the Mountain West Conference. Tonight we’re representing nine people,'” Burns said. “”We’re not just playing for San Diego State tonight. We’re playing for nine people tonight relative to this game.’ We put a lot of pressure on ourselves; we wanted to do really well.”

Added Johnson: “It’s Mountain West vs. Pac-10 and we wanted to show that we’re a top team in the Mountain West and that our conference overall is a good conference compared to all the top conferences that everyone picks to be the top.”

SDSU will have another chance to prove how good it and the MWC are this week, when it takes on two nationally ranked teams, Notre Dame and Oklahoma, at the 2009 U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam.

“We(‘ve) just got to believe in ourselves,” Johnson said. “I think whatever challenge is thrown in front of us, we could take over.”