LAS VEGAS — After starting the game as cold as a desert night, the San Diego State Aztecs women's basketball team turned up the heat defensively in the second half to top the New Mexico Lobos 63-53 in the quarterfinal of the Mountain West Championships at the Thomas & Mack Center.
The Aztecs (23-9) started the second half with a 12-0 run, holding the Lobos (18-14) scoreless for the first 6:54 en route to an 18-5 edge in the third quarter for a lead they’d never allow to dip below 9 points.
"I was proud of how we responded," said head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson. "We knew we had to defend a whole heck of a lot better if we were going to give ourselves a chance to win. We were able to create some stops and got some momentum on offense."
Cali Clark and Adryana Quezada scored 12 points apiece, while Clark grabbed a game-high nine rebounds and Jazlen Green scored 11 points off the bench as SDSU forced 22 turnovers, outscoring New Mexico 17-12 off giveaways.
"(The message was) to have some pride in our one-on-one defense, play together and have fun, and just really emphasize defense is going to win this game and our offense will come, but if we just focus on those little things like slot drives and O boards and all the little things will equal that win for us," said Kim Villalobos, who added 8 points.
Naomi Panganiban scored the first postseason point of her collegiate career to kick off the decisive run. Quezada’s midrange jumper was the only bucket outside the paint during the stretch, as afterward Villalobos and Kaelyn Hamilton scored inside, and then Clark displayed her finishing touch on back to back buckets near the cup.
UNM was able to cut the lead to single-digits three times in the fourth quarter, but Panganiban made a pair of key 3-pointers — SDSU's only for the game — at critical moments. Villalobos had the helper on the second, one of her team-best four assists for the game to go with 8 points, which pushed the lead out to 13 points with under four minutes to play.
The Scarlet and Black shut down New Mexico’s all conference selections, as All Mountain West guard Vianè Cumber and honorable mention guard Destinee Hooks combined to score just 6 points while shooting 3 of 14 for the game.
"(Cumber is) such a great shooter that she requires a lot of attention, and we game plan for her because she's that good of a shooter," Terry-Hutson said. "Hooks has done a phenomenal job, she can score at three levels... We can't guard those guys one-on-one, it was all about team defense.
It was the first game time Green scored in double-figures since New Years Day in Fort Collins, and the fourth time this season and sixth time since arriving on The Mesa after recovering from a knee injury and transferring from California.
"I wasn't forcing anything, I wasn't looking for anything, I was playing within the game and letting it come to me," Green said. "Just taking what they were giving me, honestly. I feel like at one point the switches I was getting was an advantage and I wanted to take advantage of that."
Just as in the previous two meetings, the team that won the battle inside took the game as the Scarlet and Black used a mix of drives and post plays to a 40-33 edge in the paint.
"(THe message was) just to be aggressive. If we do our jobs, it makes everybody else's job easier, so knowing that and really focusing on that and being able to do what we have to do, I feel we all did great in the paint," Clark said. "We got a lot of paint points which was really good for us, that would open up everything for our shooters."
Hamilton was a vital part of the defense, playing a career-high 24 minutes and snatching two of SDSU’s 11 steals. She and Erin Houpt finished a game best plus-10 points in scoring differential when on the floor, playing a huge part in the 27-20 Aztecs edge off the bench.
The Lobos took the lead early, taking advantage of five early Aztec turnovers for 6 points and making three of their first six field goals from downtown to lead for nearly the entire opening quarter. Joana Magalhães knocked down two of the UNM 3’s, while SDSU made just 5 of 14 and trailed by 5 points after one. UNM made four triples in the first half on 12 tries, but missed all seven from distance in the second half.
Defense began to turn the tide for the Scarlet and Black in the second quarter as they forced nine turnovers, with Veronica Sheffey, Green and Hamilton all swiping steals. Green got loose in transition for a layup that started a 12-3 SDSU run over and two and a half minute stretch.
"W experience you come to learn that basketball is a long game, so we knew that there was four quarters in so they might have had a good first half, first quarter, but we knew we could throw a punch back as well," Quezada said.
The driving shots that didn’t fall in the opening 10 minutes began to fall, sparked by Sheffey scoring on a baseline drive reverse layup for an and-one. Green added a courageous slash into the heart of the lane to score an and-one and give the Scarlet and Black their first lead at 2:52.
Despite trailing by as much as 8, the Aztecs battled back to level, 33-33 at halftime despite shooting 38.7% in the opening 20.
Waiting in the semifinal is regular season champion and No. 1 seed UNLV, who survived a game effort from Boise State by out-scoring the Broncos 30-15 in the fourth quarter for an 80-70 win. The teams split the regular season series with Sheffey nailing a buzzer-beater in a 59-58 win at Viejas Arena on January 25, then the Lady Rebels winning 75-65 at Cox Pavilion on February 12.
"We're excited to compete to get the opportunity to compete, and extremely grateful to be here today and be able to have another game tomorrow. We're just really locked in," Villalobos said.
The rematch of last year’s tournament championship game will be at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 11 at the Thomas & Mack Center.
This story was updated at 6:04 p.m.