Courtesy of Braidon Nourse
LAS VEGAS – We over me.
No. 4 San Diego State coach Stacie Terry-Hutson has the phrase on a wristband and in the lexicon of her players. In the third quarter of the Aztecs’ quarterfinal game of the Credit Union 1 Mountain West Basketball Championship against No. 5 New Mexico, the philosophy was on full display.
The Lobos got out to a quick start and led by as many as eight points in the second quarter, but through a slew of midrange jumpers and layups, the Aztecs managed to tie the game at halftime.
Then the real defensive show started. In the third quarter, San Diego State ran away with the game offensively while holding New Mexico to just five points in the frame. The Lobos’ first field goal wasn’t until 3:06 remained in the quarter. And the Aztecs did it with a lot of minutes being occupied by their reserves.
Some of it was New Mexico simply not being able to knock shots down, but the Aztecs showed fire and pace that wasn’t there to begin the game.
“I wear the bracelet — I got it for the team and everybody who’s associated with our program, … On the inside it says, ‘Sometimes you, sometimes me, always us,’” Terry-Hutson said. “That’s really the mantra we’ve had this year because we’re so gifted. We’re really deep and we had kids coming off the bench who could be starting, so I’m not surprised.”
Cali Clark led the way with 12 points off the bench on 5-for-8 from the field. She also added nine rebounds.
She was the spark plug to the third-quarter run, along with Jazlen Green, who spearheaded the second-quarter comeback and contributed four more points in the third.
“I think we just had to focus on getting the ball inside so we could play out, so just getting big and kind of taking what they were giving me,” Clark said. “They were giving me the lob, so just being able to push them up and get my position to get the over-the-top pass, that was really successful for us today.”
Tuesday’s first semifinal will feature a rematch of last season’s championship game between the Aztecs and No. 1 UNLV. Both teams have undergone some change between last year and this campaign — UNLV lost its star in Desi-Rae Young and San Diego State added certain pieces that helped on Monday.
But San Diego State feels it’s a bit more equipped for the challenge than last year. Most of all, grateful to be playing in a third straight semifinal.
“That’s what we talked about after the game: lucky to be here, grateful to be here,” Terry-Huston said. “UNLV is such a good team. We’ve seen them do amazing things for our conference, so we’re just excited to compete at a high level and see where it takes us.”
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