Courtesy of San Diego State Athletics
SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State women’s basketball team (27-5) beat McNeese (29-6) 56-41 in the second round of the WBIT at the University of San Diego Sunday afternoon. With the win, the Aztecs tied a school record with their 27th win and advanced to the WNIT quarterfinals and will play at No. 2 seed Kansas (21-13) on Thursday.
The Aztecs held McNeese to 27 percent shooting, only allowed one three-pointer and forced 15 turnovers.
“I’m so proud of this group and every win now is setting a new record,” Head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson said afterwards. “We had a fantastic defensive effort today and that’s how we separated ourselves.”
SDSU had a balanced scoring effort with five players scoring between nine and 11 points, led by Bailey Barnhard’s 11. Nala Williams had nine points and five assists and Kaelyn Hamilton added nine with a career-high eight rebounds.
Going against a McNeese team that was top 15 in the nation in turnovers forced, the Aztecs got off to a slow start offensively but still led 7-6 at the end of the first quarter.
The Aztecs found some rhythm in the second quarter, shooting 60% from the field and building a double-digit lead. The closest McNeese would get in the second half was seven points midway through the third.
SDSU had a season-high 20 turnovers but only allowed McNeese to score 12 points off turnovers.
“McNeese needs transition points to win, so we talked about taking care of the ball and not having live ball turnovers so we could get back and get our defense set,” Terry-Hutson explained.
The Cowgirls were led by Dakota Howard’s 16 points.
STAT OF THE GAME I
The Aztecs had assists on 14 of their 18 field goals.
STAT OF THE GAME II
SDSU held McNeese to 10 points or fewer in three of the four quarters.
THE NOTE
The Aztecs are 25-for-25 from the line in their two WBIT games.
UP NEXT
SDSU will play at No. 2 Kansas Thursday night (time TBD) and it will be streamed on ESPN+.
