San Diego State’s women’s basketball team clinched at least a tie for the Mountain West regular-season basketball title Saturday afternoon, while UC Irvine rallied in the second half at LionTree Arena then held on to defeat UC San Diego 70-68 in a battle between Big West Conference co-leaders.

The Aztecs (22-4, 16-1) defeated Fresno State 68-59 to clinch a share of their first Mountain West title since the 2012-2013 season. San Diego State holds a three-game lead on UNLV and Boise State with three games to play in the regular season. The Aztecs play at Boise State Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, UC San Diego led 40-34 at halftime only to be outscored 36-28 in the second half. Jada Wynn scored on a layup and added a free throw to put Irvine ahead to stay at 66-63 with 1:25 to play. The Anteaters added four free throws in the final 13 seconds to go up 70-65 before UCSD freshman Lev Feiman hit a 3-pointer with seven seconds to go. UCSD never regained possession.

UC Irvine is now 23-4 overall and 14-2 in Big West play with four games to play in the regular season. The Tritons fell to 18-8 and 13-3.

Guard Makayla Rose led the Tritons with 16 points. Forward Erin Condron had 14 points, 11 rebounds and a blocked shot. Feiman came off the bench to score 12 points, with Sabrina Ma having nine points, six rebounds and four assists before fouling out. Wynn led the Anteaters with 20 points (including 11 of 12 on free throws) and eight rebounds.

Point guard Nala Williams led the Aztecs with 14 points, six assists, five rebounds and two steals. Kaelyn Hamilton came off the bench to score 11 points (on 5-for-8 shooting) with five rebounds while guard Natalia Martinez hit two key 3s and finished with 10 points.

“I thought we were tired today,” said SDSU coach Stacie Terry-Hutson, whose Aztecs were coming off an emotional 80-62 win over UNLV on Wednesday. “But we picked each other up, played strong defense in the second half and moved on. This entire season has been about different players stepping up at different times. We had that again today. Not just starters … our depth has been our secret weapon.”

“It’s incredible, we reached a goal today,” said Martinez. “We have a lot more goals. We knew when we started practicing last summer, that we knew we had to put our individual games to the side to play as a team. Accomplishing this goal gives us a better feeling going into our other goals.”

Palomar wins

Palomar College defeated MiraCosta College 76-61 on Friday in San Marcos, handing the last undefeated women’s community college team in California its first loss and forcing a tie for the championship in the final Pacific Coast Athletic Conference standings.

Both MiraCosta (27-1 overall) and Palomar (20-7) finished with 11-1 records in the PCAC. San Diego City and Mesa Colleges tied for third with identical 15-13 and 7-5 records. The state playoff brackets will be announced Sunday.

Palomar outscored MiraCosta 27-11 in the fourth quarter and 47-26 in the second half,  with Ivorii Seals (Mira Mesa High School) scoring 17 points and Kailani Flournoy (Mater Dei Catholic High School) adding 15 points and 11 rebounds.

USD loses

Loyola Marymount (19-18, 13-3 West Coast Conference) completed a two-game sweep of the University of San Diego women (9-20, 3-13) with a near wire-to-wire 74-61 victory at Gersten Pavilion in Los Angeles. Guard Kylie Ray led USD with 17 points and four assists.