SAN DIEGO — It’s said that there are no secrets in conference play, and after a 68-59 loss to New Mexico at Viejas Arena on Saturday afternoon, the San Diego State Aztecs women’s basketball team needs to re-find their secret sauce.
The Aztecs (12-4, 1-2 Mountain West Conference) shot under 37% from the field in three of the four quarters and committed 18 turnovers, losing back-to-back games for the first time this season.
“As good as we played here at the beginning of the week, we played as poorly at the end of the week — you know, three games in seven days — I thought we looked a little fatigued and we got outplayed tonight,” said head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson. “We gave up too many driving opportunities to the rim and they kept us on our heels.”
New Mexico (10-6, 3-0) got 18 points from Destinee Hooks in her first appearance off the bench of the season while dominating SDSU with a 42-24 advantage on points in the paint. The Lobos aggressive defense forced the Aztecs to tie their second-most turnovers in a regulation game this season and turned it into a 16-9 scoring edge off those giveaways.
SDSU scored the first two buckets of the game on a Kim Villalobos layup then a Cali Clark paint move, then were held off the board for the next 4:17 as UNM scored the next 8 points and never led the rest of the way. The Lobos hedged hard, double-teaming the dribbler on perimeter ball-screens and forcing five turnovers before the first media timeout.
“We have to control the pace of the game and make the right reads — I think we can take advantage of teams trying to hedge out and be extra aggressive, said Veronica Sheffey, who led SDSU with 14 points. “We just have to slow ourselves down and find the open player and it becomes much more simpler.”
That sped up pace was a big part of the Aztecs struggles getting the ball inside, as they attempted just six of their 13 shots in the first quarter from inside the arc. Troubles from shooting downtown carried over from the road trip to Colorado, as SDSU made 7 of 21 from downtown in total but just 4 of 17 outside of the third quarter.
The Lobos led by 5 points after the first quarter and 28-24 at the break, then scored 9 of the first 12 points in the third quarter to open their first double-digit lead 2:29 into the second half.
“We didn't play with the poise. One of the keys was poise, and we didn't play with that,” Terry-Hutson said. “We could talk about the offense, and I'm going to lose some sleep these next couple days over that. But really it's defense.
“We’ve got to get better defending one on one or we’ve got to change what we do.”
The lead grew as large as 13 points three times as the Scarlet and Black were unable to score on back-to-back possessions until Sheffey scored on a curling drive then a left corner 3 to cut it to 53-45 after the third.
SDSU had rallied from large second half deficits in their previous two home games against the Lobos in 2024 (9 points late in the third) and 2023 (13 points), as well as a 9-point comeback effort in their 2023 Mountain West Tournament quarterfinals win.
A Jazlen Green triple to open the fourth and an Adryana Quezada paint score cut the deficit to 5 points twice, but the Lobos scored 4 straight with an Amhyia Moreland bucket three minutes in and never let it get closer than 6 points the rest of the way.
“We got ourselves some momentum but it just comes down to getting stops (and) we couldn't get a stop,” Sheffey said. “You know that's what every game's going to come down to. You can make all the baskets in the world but if you can't get a stop it's not going to do anything.”
Making just 1 of 8 from the field down the stretch, the Aztecs only had one make over the final 6:13. Alyssa Hargrove scored 2 of her 12 points on a jumper and Viané Cumber made two free throws of her 12 points as the Lobos closed it out by making 5 of 6 at the line in the final two minutes.
San Diego State is on the road for both games next week, facing Nevada at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 8 before traveling to Wyoming for a 1 p.m. tip on Saturday, Jan. 11.
“We're going to watch a lot of film on our one on one defense and we got to be better and I’ve got to make some changes to make sure that's how we start games where we're not turning the ball over and we're defending at a high level,” Terry-Hutson said.