SAN DIEGO – After giving up a 9-0 run out of halftime, Natalia Martinez converted a key 4-point play to swing the momentum and the game for the San Diego State Aztecs in a 73-57 win over the North Texas Mean Green on Thursday afternoon at Viejas Arena.
The junior Piedmont High grad scored a career-high 25 points and drew eight fouls, while freshman forward Dionne Madjo came off the bench to score 15 points, grab an SDSU-high 9 rebounds and swat 3 blocks. The Aztecs (2-0) outscored the Mean Green (1-1) 31-16 in the third quarter, and held the visitors from Denton, Texas under 30% shooting in three quarters.
"The toughness was on full display. This was a very physical game, more physical than probably we've seen thus far. And I thought we did a great job handling the pressure and also defending at a high level," head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson said. "This was a great game to prepare us for conference and what the rest of the year is going to look like."
It was the annual field trip day game for SDSU, where over 3,900 students from 31 different schools attended as part of a crowd of 5,090 that played a big part in the massive third quarter comeback.
"We love when there's field trip games. We always do the 'six-seven' to them, and they get rowdy. A lot of them do 'scuba' now, too, so it's just funny. They bring a lot of good energy," Martinez said.
Martinez and Madjo became a two-woman wrecking crew out of halftime, helping spark a pair of 10-plus point runs. The biggest, a 13-0 sprint came on a pair of 3’s by the guard, two layups by the French national and then a corner depth charge by Alayna Kraus with the shot clock expiring. SDSU finished 7-of-26 from beyond the arc.
The Mean Green managed just a pair of field goals in the third quarter, getting a 3-ball from Kalysta Martin at the 8:14 mark and not scoring another until 43 seconds into the fourth — a near nine minute stretch.
"There was a toughness about us that I was unsure about in this early season. I know we have it in us. I didn't know that we could sustain it like we did this game. It really showed me a lot about the group that I have," Terry-Hutson said.
"I was sitting there and they went on that run and my bench Was like, 'Time out, time out.' And I flashed to Dawn Staley. You know, Dawn Staley lets her teams figure it out. And I'm glad that I did because that shows me how tough that group is and that's really what it's about."
After UNT took the then-largest lead of the game, the game-changing play came on the Martinez make with a close out foul by KaMyra Barber. The 4-point play kicked off the first 10-0 run in response.
Madjo made her presence felt, earning a pair of free throws and making a contested bucket as part of the run. SDSU outscored North Texas 14-2 over a 2:47 stretch, with Madjo scoring 6 of the points and becoming the second Aztec in double-figures.
"Dionne is a beast. I tell everyone if they haven't watched us play, if you're gonna watch someone, watch Dionne," Martinez said.
"She's athletic, and she doesn't get tired. She's running along with me, which I love. And she's a great kid off the court, too, so having her on the team definitely brings up the morale."
Though Bailey Barhard finished with 4 points on 1-of-9 shooting, she also corralled 9 rebounds and had a pair of blocks. She had several key hustle plays, including a dive for the ball underneath where she spiked it out of bounds off a UNT player to save an SDSU possession in the second quarter, drew a critical charge with 3 fouls in the third quarter, and recorded her final block in the last two minutes to serve as an exclamation point.
The fourth quarter was played much closer to how the first two were, with the teams trading scores. Sophomore guard Kendall Mosley, who spent her freshman year on The Mesa, scored the final 7 points for the Mean Green, finishing the game with 9 points in an abbreviated 12 minutes due to foul trouble.
As one might expect with both teams ranking in their conference’s top three in scoring defense last season — SDSU was second in the Mountain West and North Texas third in the American — points were at a premium in the opening quarter. The teams combined to miss 21 shots from the field, with neither side shooting better than 28.6%.
Martinez’s triple to open the scoring for SDSU was the only score from downtown in the first ten minutes, and ended up being the single point differential. Both teams made 4 field goals and 3 free throws, with the Aztecs scoring all coming from their three starting guards.
It took until nearly three and a half minutes into the second quarter for either side to take a multi-possession lead. After defensive pressure forced a bad pass out of bounds, Martinez curled around a Mayenabasi Akpan screen and took the feed from the freshman post to knock down her second triple and push the advantage to 5 points. Akpan was limited to just 4 minutes after picking up two fouls early.
"Our freshmen, all of them are talented. I need more minutes to play them. Mairead (Hearty) is off the charts. Mayen is a beast. A duck in old school post player that loves the contact and can rebound with the best of them, and Dionne. I need more minutes in the game because they're all worthy. They're so talented," Terry-Hutson said.
An Eva DeChent driving score gave the Aztecs a 4 point lead near the three minutes mark, but from there on aside from back-to-back possessions where Martin and Martinez traded buckets, 10 of the final 14 points were scored at the free throw line, with the Mean Green getting the final four in the last minute to knot the score 30-30 at halftime.
"We pride ourselves a lot on our defense. So reminding one another during our halftime talk, 'This is what we talk about. We want to say that we're a defensive team. Let's act on it.' And that's what we did in the second half," Martinez said
Martinez’s 10 first half points led SDSU, with her going 3-of-4 from the field and 2-of-3 both beyond the arc and at the charity stripe. DeChent was the only other Aztec with multiple makes, hitting 3-of-7 for 8 points. The senior guard finished with 10 points
Barber had 11 points to lead the Mean Green, the only UNT player to score more than one bucket in the first half. Barber finished with 11 points, as did sophomore guard Cherie Spencer, who also had 11 rebounds for the visitors.
San Diego State continues their season opening four-game home stand against UTSA.
The Roadrunners were selected second in the American Conference coaches poll and two of the 13 possible first place votes after winning the conference tournament last season as the No. 4 seed and advancing to the NCAA tournament.. Senior forward Idara Udo was selected to the preseason All-Conference First team after the 6-foot-1, four-year Roadrunner averaged 9.3 points and 7.4 rebounds last season.
"It's going to be a lot of what you saw today. They're known for their defense, they have a really good post player. They return quite a bit of their starters and major playmakers and so it's going to be a lot of what you saw today," Terry-Hutson said. "Toughness, grit, a good defensive team. It's going to be a battle and we're looking forward to it."
Tip off against UTSA is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 8 at Viejas Arena. The game will be streamed live on the Pac-12 Youtube channel.
This story was updated at 3:04 p.m.