Sunday’s matinee between San Diego State and UTSA is not only another showdown between teams picked to finish near the top of their respective conferences, but also has the added bonus of one of the all-time greats to wear scarlet and black making her return to The Mesa.
Coming off a win over American Conference opponent North Texas on Thursday, where the Aztecs (2-0) rode a dominant third quarter to a 73-57 win, they will face a Roadrunners (0-1) team that was picked to finish second in the American. The UTSA bench also features third-year assistant coach and ‘Aztec for Life’ Sophia Ramos, who played five seasons at SDSU and ranks second all-time in program points, assists and 3-pointers.
“It's awesome to be back here with, seeing the success that coach Stacie (Terry-Hutson) has
had and continues to have and come with a team I consider family, with staff I consider family,” the former guard, who still holds the program record with 4,915 minutes played, said.
Ramos was one of the critical pieces that helped San Diego State get back to prominence in the Mountain West conference in her five seasons with the program from 2018-19 to 2022-23. In her fifth season the Aztecs returned to postseason play by hosting an opening round WNIT game, snapping a nine-season drought.
“San Diego, I consider it a second home. I spent five years here. I got to grow up, kind of find myself a little bit,” Ramos said. “It's really cool being back here at a different stage of my life now, helping people who I was just in their shoes not too long ago come and kind of figure themselves out a little bit, too.“
But after earning her B.A. in kinesiology with a minor in psychology, then a Master’s in education with a counseling concentration at SDSU, the San Antonio native was content to leave basketball behind with her legacy etched in the Aztecs record books.
Then, Ramos was introduced to UTSA head coach Karen Aston by then-Roadrunners player and current assistant Kyra White, which led to a spot on the staff as video coordinator and a player development role in 2023-24.
“I think this staff and this team and this program helped me find something that I was missing, and just helped me understand you can find yourself while still being around basketball and still helping other people be in that same role that I was in,” Ramos said.
The Roadrunners were the American’s top ranked scoring defense for the second year in a row last season by allowing just 58.7 points per game, with opponents shooting 37.2% from the field and 28.6% on 3-pointers, which ranked first and second in the conference.
This season, Ramos has been given the responsibility of leading the team’s defense, which she said has been a running joke when she sees coaches she played for or against. She also credited associate head coach Cameron Miles as a mentor, who joined the UTSA staff in 2021 and has primarily worked with the Roadrunners post players — a role Ramos also now has a part in.
“I think it's cool that our head coach is such a defensive minded coach because I may see something, but the way her mind works, I’ve learned something new every time she talks to us,” she said.
UTSA, who reached the NCAA tournament last season by winning their conference tournament, opened the season with a 69-51 loss on Friday at UNLV. The Roadrunners held a lead after the first quarter, but gave up a 10-0 run in the second quarter en route to being out-scored 41-23 in the middle two frames.
Junior guard Damara Allen led UTSA with 17 points on 5-of-13 shooting and 3-of-7 from downtown, while 6-foot-3 senior forward and Oklahoma State transfer Praise Egharevba added 9 points. Preseason first team All Conference selection Idara Udo, a 6-foot-1 senior forward, was limited to 2 points on 1-of-5 shooting with 4 rebounds and 4 turnovers.
When asked to break down SDSU as a coach, Ramos noted how “bigger, faster and stronger” the team is and credited the staff for being able to keep “a really good core group” of local players in Namoi Panganiban, Natalia Martinez and Bailey Barnhard.
Panganiban is out indefinitely due to injury, while Martinez led SDSU with a career-high 25 points in the win over North Texas, and Barnhard was recently announced as the program's first Kay Yow Servant Leader.
“They’ve proven to win, there’s a reason they were conference champions last year, they won first and upset UNLV always being at the top of the (Mountain West).”
Ramos has kept up with SDSU since graduating, and even after UTSA was eliminated from the WBIT by Gonzaga in her first season on staff, she then made sure to buy a ticket to Baton Rouge, La. to see SDSU’s first round NCAA game in 2025 and message the staff.
Having known Terry-Hutson since she was “12 or 13,” Ramos said she watched the head coach’s postgame comments after SDSU’s win over North Texas, and that “it means everything to hear how much I mean to her because she means just as much to me. I'm not me without her. I don't have the career I have without her and I'm not able to do what I love without her.”
So while having gone through the new experience of practice on Steve Fisher Court after preparing in the opposing locker room on Saturday, Ramos made sure to find time to feel back at home again.
“After we got on the court, I went to the training room side and went to go see (head athletic trainer) Queenie (Soriano). That's family for life at this point. So it's definitely different being on the opposing side and in orange and blue,” Ramos said.
“But I couldn't ask for a better team to be here with, and if I can't be with the Aztecs, I'm glad I'm here with the Roadrunners.”
San Diego State hosts UTSA at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 8 at Viejas Arena, and the game will be streamed on the Pac-12 Youtube channel.