San Diego State knocks off TCU
San Diego State coach Beth Burns called it “The Play.”
It was exactly that — the play of the Mountain West Conference women’s basketball tournament.
With two seconds left on the shot clock, Aztecs guard Quenese Davis threw an inbounds pass off Texas Christian guard Adrianne Ross’ back, stepped inbounds, grabbed the ball and put in a layup to give San Diego State the lead for good with 17.2 seconds left in a 69-67 semifinal victory Friday at the Thomas & Mack Center.
The sixth-seeded Aztecs (18-12) will play No. 4 seed New Mexico in the championship game at 1 p.m. today. The winner receives the conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
Davis had pulled off the play all three times she tried it previously, and Burns wasn’t going to argue with the effort this time, which put San Diego State up 68-67.
“In March, players make plays, and ‘Q’ couldn’t have made a bigger one,” Burns said.
Davis said the original play was designed for guard Jene Morris, who finished with a game-high 24 points, including a free throw with 11 seconds left for the final margin.
“I just saw everyone attracting their attention to Jene, especially Adrianne Ross,” Davis said. “I just do what I always do when I see that. I threw the ball off her butt and finished the play.”
Aztecs center Paris Johnson scored 11 points and forward Allison Duffy 10.
Five players reached double figures for the second-seeded Horned Frogs (21-11). Forward Micah Garoutte and guard Helena Sverrisdottir tied for the team high with 12 points apiece.
• New Mexico 65, Colorado State 41 — The Lobos built a 21-point lead, then withstood a second-half charge to end the Rams’ surprising tournament run.
Ninth-seeded Colorado State (4-28), which had defeated UNLV in the play-in game and top-seeded and 12th-ranked Utah, made things interesting by pulling within 40-30 with 11:20 left before New Mexico (19-12) scored six consecutive points to regain control.
“I was getting a little upset,” Lobos coach Don Flanagan said. “That’s a team that won’t quit.
“But for the most part, we played pretty well. Sometimes when you get a big lead and then it gets down to 10, all of a sudden everybody starts getting nervous, and then all of a sudden, it’s a close game.”
Dionne Marsh led New Mexico with 19 points, and Brandi Kimble scored 13.
Sara Hunter was the only Rams player to reach double figures, scoring 15 points.
“We couldn’t have fought harder,” Hunter said. “Obviously, we’d all want to take the first half back. I’m just proud of our team, really. I’m glad we did what we did here.
“Wish it could have ended differently.”
Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2914.