San Diego State went on a 12-0 run to start the third quarter Monday afternoon and went on to defeat New Mexico 63-53 in a quarterfinals of the Mountain West women’s basketball tournament in Las Vegas.
The fourth-seeded Aztecs (23-9) will face top-seeded UNLV (24-6) at 5 p.m. Tuesday in the semifinals.
Monday’s game was tied 33-33 at halftime and neither team had scored in the first 2 ¼ minutes of the second half when SDSU’s Kim Villalobos intercepted a Lobos and fed freshman guard Naomi Panganiban for a breakaway layup that gave San Diego State a 35-33 lead.
The Aztecs led 45-33 before New Mexico (18-13) scored again. San Diego State outscored New Mexico 18-5 in the third quarter with Jazlen Green, Cali Clark and Adryana Quezada all scoring a pair of baskets in the period.
Quezada and Clark led the Aztecs with 12 points apiece. Clark also led the Aztecs with nine rebounds with Quezada pulling down six boards.
Green went 5 for 7 from the floor and finished with 11 points. Villalobos and Panganiban each added eight points.
San Diego State shot 46.4% from the floor, but went 14-for-25 (56%) in the second half. Panganiban hit both her 3-point attempts in the fourth quarter. The Aztecs forced New Mexico into 22 turnovers.
SDSU also got 27 points from its bench.
“I’m not surprised by the bench play,” SDSU coach Stacie Terry-Hutson said. “We’re really deep. We have kids coming off the bench who could be starting. I thought Kaelyn Hamilton had a great game coming off the bench. Clark, Green, Erin Houpt were defending.
“I was proud of how we responded in the third quarter. We were able to create some stops and got some momentum on offense.”
Said Green: “I’ve trained for this game all season. It was a physical game. It’s what I’ve trained for.”
Tuesday’s semifinal against UNLV is a rematch of last year’s Mountain West Tournament championship game won by the Rebels, 66-49.
The teams split their two regular-season games this season. The Aztecs won the first meeting at Viejas Arena, rallying in the second half and winning on Veronica Sheffey’s basket at the final buzzer. UNLV won the rematch 75-65 in Las Vegas.
Elsewhere
The NCAA Division II West Regionals in men’s basketball will be held Friday, Saturday and Monday at Point Loma Nazarene University, with the top-seeded host Sea Lions (27-5) meeting No. 8 seed Seattle Pacific (18-14) Friday at 8:30 p.m.
• The University of San Diego’s seventh-ranked men’s tennis team ran its record to 14-2 while winning the Ed Collins Classic Tournament at USD. The Toreros defeated UC San Diego 4-0, Old Dominion 4-1 and UC Santa Barbara 4-0.
• Palomar College’s two state-ranked teams are off to fast starts.
The Comets softball team, which is ranked second in California, ran its record to 13-2 with three wins last week. Sophomore Maddie Bedello has an 8-0 record with a 1.46 earned run average. Gisele Gonzalez is hitting .537 (22-for-41).
Palomar’s baseball team is off to a 13-7 start and ranked 12th in the state. The Comets are the early leaders in the Pacific Coast Athletic Association with a 5-1 record.
• UC San Diego’s baseball team is off to a 9-7 start thanks to stellar pitching by Matthew Dalquist (2-1, 1.14 ERA in four starts), Spencer Seid (2-1, 3.86 ERA with 28 strikeouts in 18 2/3 innings) and reliever Sam Hasegawa (2-0, 2.20 ERA). The Tritons won three of four games from 23rd-ranked Cincinnati.
• San Diego State’s No. 20 women’s water polo (10-7) team tied a school record with 25 goals in a 25-7 win at Concordia. Claudia Valdez led the Aztecs with five goals while Shannon Murphy and Mimi Stoupoas each scored four.
• SDSU diver Valentina Lopez Arevalo qualified for the NCAA 3-meter springboard championships Monday with a sixth-place finish in the first day of the NCAA Zone E Diving Championships at Federal Way, Wash.
• San Diego State’s Lauren Harper placed second in both the 1,500 meters (4:29.40) and 800 (2:10.66) as the women’s track team opened its outdoor season in the Ben Brown Invitational at Fullerton.
