SAN DIEGO – The eleven days spent back in the lab served the San Diego State women’s basketball team well, as the Aztecs gutted and gritted their way to a 61-55 win over UC Irvine in the first round of the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament at Jenny Craig Pavilion.
The wounds of an opening round conference tournament exit became hardened defensive callouses as the Aztecs (26-5) held the Big West regular season champion Anteaters (26-7) without a basket for the final 2:38 where they forced three turnovers and closed the game on an 8-0 run.
Naomi Panganiban scored a game-high 22 points and made all nine of her free throws — SDSU made all 13 and UCI made all nine of their freebies in the game — while Kennedy Lee added 11 points with eight rebounds. Hunter Hernandez led the Anteaters with 19 points and four assists, and Jada Wynn scored 12 points and matched SDSU’s Bailey Barnhard with a game-high nine rebounds.
Lee went to the bench after getting hit under her left eye while battling for a defensive rebound with Naomy Zonzon-Huyghe, with the UC Irvine guard drawing the loose ball foul at the 1:10 mark of the third quarter.
She returned to play the final 6:45, and scored the first basket of the decisive run to close the game off a Barnhard feed. Bailey had scored back-to-back buckets to help erase a 3-point deficit early in the fourth quarter.
The Aztecs scored their final 6 points at the free throw line, with Panganiban making a pair and Nala Williams filling the final four. Williams also came up with a key steal off Big West Player of the Year Hernandez inside of 30 seconds remaining that led to Hernandez eventually fouling out.
The defensive duties of marking Hernandez were shared between Mountain West Player of the Year Williams and Mountain West Sixth Player of the Year Kaelyn Hamilton, with Hamilton hamstrung by foul trouble and playing 15 minutes and scoring 4 points but also recording a key steal.
In the third quarter UC Irvine splashed three of four 3-point tries in a 2:51 flurry, with Wynn, Hernandez and Lauryn Madsen each knocking down one to open up a 4-point lead and force an SDSU timeout. Panganiban responded out of the break by hitting a left-corner 3-pointer to stem the tide.
The final 4:35 of the third frame was played at a herky-jerky pace, with the extra media timeout coming after an SDSU foul following the Panganiban making. The Aztecs also asked for a review of an out of bounds play, which took additional time but did not change the ruling.
Then SDSU closed the quarter after the Lee injury with back to back 3’s by Panganiban and then Natalia Martinez after a Hamilton steal.
As one would expect, the two of the top ranked defenses in their conferences controlled play in the early stages. SDSU had a spell of five consecutive misses in the opening quarter, while UCI had a pair of four misses in a row.
Hernandez scored the first eight points of the game for the Anteaters, while SDSU spread their first quarter scoring with six different players figuring in and Panganiban hitting all four of her takes from the charity stripe.
The lead was never bigger than four points in the opening 10 minutes, as Hamilton came off the bench and hit a long 2 in the right corner and then Williams found Alyssa Jackson on a back-cut for a layup. But Wynn put her first points in the book on an and-one and Summah Hansen hit the first triple of the game to make it 14-14. UC Irvine finished with six different players making a 3-pointer each.
SDSU converted their first two from beyond the arc early in the second quarter, with Lee hitting from her favorite spot top of the key and then CJ Latta raining one from the right wing.
Panganiban followed up by knocking down a paint jumper plus a free throw after drawing the foul to extend the run to 9-0, then drew a key charge on Hernandez at the 6:28 mark that sent her to the bench with two early fouls.
But the bucket by Panganiban would be the final of the first half for the Scarlet and Black, as SDSU missed their final eight shots from the field and only got a pair of free throws from the sophomore guard with 3:23 before the break.
It opened the door for UC Irvine to get back into the game by closing the half on a 7-0 run with Grant hitting a 3-pointer, Stores taking a feed from Wynn for a driving score and then Hernandez converting the only second-chance score of the half on the Anteaters’ third offensive rebound. After leading by as much as 9 points, the Aztecs had to settle for a 25-23 lead at the half.
The win is SDSU’s first win in a postseason tournament in 13 years, and avenged a loss to UC Irvine in the first round of the 2023 WNIT at Viejas Arena.
San Diego State will face Southland Conference regular season champions McNeese, who upset regional top-seed Texas A&M 68-48 on Thursday evening. The Cowgirls had lost in their tournament championship game to Stephen F. Austin, and will come into the game with a 29-5 record.
The second round game between the Aztecs and McNeese will tip off at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 22 at the Jenny Craig Pavilion on the campus of the University of San Diego. Admission will be free for college-aged students and under, and tickets can be purchased at the USD box office.
