San Diego State women’s basketball senior guard McKynzie Fort stood at the free throw line with 16 seconds left and her team leading by two points.
Fort made the first free throw before missing the second, but rebounded her miss and made two additional free throws to help seal a 75-72 victory over the University of Nevada (11-12, 4-8 MW) on Saturday afternoon at Viejas Arena.
“I knew how important it was for us to get that rebound,” Fort said. “It came my way, I had an opportunity.”
Fort scored 15 points in the win, which ended a four game losing streak and improves the Aztecs conference record to 4-8 and 10-13 overall.
“What we were able to do tonight was finish out in the fourth quarter which has been the theme for this last week,” head coach Stacie Terry said. “I was really proud of the way that we finished.”
Tied with five minutes to play, a jumper by sophomore forward Baylee Vanderdoes and layup by freshman guard Te’a Adams (eight points) put SDSU up 63-59 with 4:45 to play.
Adam’s layup was the first of four straight layups for the Aztecs, which helped the team build a 69-63 lead with 3:03 remaining.
“The game plan the coaches drilled into us was to attack them before they were able to set up,” Fort said.
Nevada would rally with a 7-0 run to grab a 70-69 lead, a run punctuated by a layup from junior forward AJ Cephas following an inbounds pass turnover by senior guard Geena Gomez with 1:03 to play.
On the ensuing possession Gomez hit two free throws after being fouled on a jumper to recapture the lead at 71-70 with 46 seconds left.
“I shouldn’t have passed it… got to always make up for it,” Gomez said.
Gomez led all Aztecs scorers with 18 points and a team high six assists.
Nevada couldn’t score on the following possession, and had to resort to fouling in the final seconds.
SDSU lost a 30-29 lead in the third quarter during which time Nevada went on an 11-1 run to go up 49-42 with 1:49 left before the fourth.
Nevada senior forward Teige Zeller scored nine of her game high 19 points in the third quarter to lead the Wolf Pack.
The Aztecs would benefit from a flagrant foul call on Nevada senior guard T Moe with 29 seconds left in the third, after she appeared to push SDSU freshman guard Naje Murray as both went for a rebound.
Two subsequent made free throws by Gomez cut the Aztecs deficit to 49-46 going into the final quarter.
“It was a big rebound by (Murray),” Terry said. “It did help us getting more points on the free throw line and getting ball back… We were able to keep the score within range going into the fourth.”
The largest lead of the first half came when Gomez hit a three pointer to give the Aztecs a 11-4 lead with just over five minutes left in the first quarter.
Both teams failed to shoot higher than 40% in the first half and Nevada was scoreless the last 3:53 of the first quarter.
The Aztecs wore all-pink uniforms in honor of this years Play4Kay game, an annual event which is meant to raise awareness for breast cancer.
SDSU’s next game will be on the road against the University of Wyoming on Feb. 14.
