San Diego State’s women’s basketball team rode its defense to a 12th straight win Wednesday afternoon, scoring a 46-44 victory at Colorado State despite shooting only 34% from the floor while going 0-for-12 on three-point attempts.
“What a great defensive effort,” SDSU coach Stacie Terry-Hutson said. “This was a really good team win. We did a good job taking away their strengths.”
San Diego State improved to 16-3 overall and remained a game up in the Mountain West race at 10-0. Colorado State fell to 17-5 and 8-3.
Sophomores Kaelyn Hamilton and Alyssa Jackson came off the bench to statistically lead the Aztecs.
Hamilton, a 5-foot-9 guard, went 7-for-11 on field goal attempts and led all scorers with 15 points with five rebounds. Jackson, a 5-foot-11 guard/forward, had 11 defensive rebounds to lead the Aztecs to a 40-30 edge on the boards.
“Hamilton is tough as nails,” said Terry-Hutson. “She can guard anyone out there and she was locked in defensively today.”
San Diego State opened the game on a 10-1 run and held the lead until there was 7:37 remaining. Colorado State led by three points at 38-35 with 3:53 to play. But the Aztecs regained the lead for good with a 10-0 run to hold a seven-point lead at 45-38 with 28 seconds to play.
A pair of Colorado State 3-pointers coupled with the Aztecs missing five of six free-throw attempts allowed the Rams to have the final possession with three seconds to go before Aztecs guard Nat Martinez forced a win-clinching turnover.
SDSU leading scorer Naomi Panganiban was held without a field goal, but hit all eight of her free-throw attempts in the second half. Guard Nala Williams, the reigning Mountain West Player of the Week, had seven points and six rebounds. Forward Bailey Barnhard had six points and eight rebounds.
The 46 points were the fewest ever in a win in Aztec history. Wednesday marked the first time in 11 seasons that San Diego State won a game without making a 3-point shot. The Aztecs average 9.1 3s a game and made 14 last Saturday against San Jose State.
“It was an ugly win,” said Terry-Hutson. “We’re going to take positives away from the fact that we won on the road at altitude in this conference against a very good team.”