The road has proven to be a difficult place for the CSU women’s basketball team all season long, and its game on Wednesday night only added to the troubles.
CSU hit the road Wednesday night to take on its Mountain West rival San Diego State, but the Aztecs got the better of the match up, winning 60-44 in Viejas Arena.
The Rams held tight with SDSU for the majority of the first half, a similar story to the last meeting the two teams had on Jan. 13 when CSU dropped the home game by only four points.
“I liked the way these kids came out to play,” CSU coach Ryun Williams said. “We knew we needed to get things going and I think they did a good job of getting it done.”
CSU lost the lead it built for itself midway through the first half, allowing the Aztecs to go on a 16-0 run, which was the turning point in the game, as the Rams never saw the lead again.
“I think we’ve been dealing with that all season,” senior forward Meghan Heimstra said. “We have our runs too, we just need to make those runs for the other team a little less extreme.”
SDSU entered the locker room at halftime with an 11-point cushion over the Rams, but CSU was able to eliminate it coming back from the recess, pulling back to within one point midway through the second.
“It helps us come out in the second half a little harder, knowing we have some ground to make up,” freshman guard Caitlin Duffy said. “We gave up some baskets leading into half that we shouldn’t have.”
Although CSU was able to make it back into the game, they allowed the Aztecs to go on another run that took control for the remainder of regulation.
“I think we put ourselves in a good position to win that game in the last five or six minutes, and we just couldn’t get it done,” Williams said.
The deal was sealed when CSU’s leading scorer, Heimstra, was sent to the bench for the rest of the game after she fouled out with two minutes left.
“I hate fouling out, it’s just one of those things,” Heimstra said. “You just have to watch and hope for your teammates to pull through.”
CSU falls to 7-15, 3-6 MW as SDSU improves to 18-5, 9-1 MW after Wednesday’s result.
“It’s tough to go on the road in a place like that,” Williams said. “We just didn’t get the ball in the basket the way we needed to.”
