SAN DIEGO – Nala Williams and Kennedy Lee both posted double-doubles, while a pair of early runs gave the San Diego State women’s basketball team control the whole way through a 94-66 win over the San José State Spartans on Saturday afternoon at Viejas Arena.
Williams became the second Aztec in the Mountain West era with a 20 and 10 double-double, scoring 20 points with 10 assists and five rebounds for her second of the season, while Lee had 10 points and 11 rebounds for her first double-double at SDSU and third of her career.
The Aztecs (15-3, 9-0 Mountain West) exploded for 18 in a row in the first quarter and then dashed off a 10-0 run early in the second to put the Spartans (3-18, 1-9) at arms length for the remainder of the game as the Scarlet and Black scored their most points against a DI team this season.
Beyond the duo of Williams and Lee, San Diego State was able to get heavy minutes out of their bench, outscoring SJSU 39-12. Alyssa Jackson and Kaelyn Hamilton each scored 8 points, Kendall Mosely added 7 points, and CJ Latta and Maria Konstantinidou had 6 points apiece.
After trading triples in the first minute, the combination of SDSU defense and poor shooting by San José State set the table to match their longest run of the season, equalling an 18-0 stretch against CSUN.
It started with a top of the key 3 from Bailey Barnhard, then the guards got into the paint and drew free throw opportunities as Naomi Panganiban and Williams each converted both their freebies. An early exclamation point came when Nat Martinez faked and then drew contact as she made a long ball from the left wing and then converted the and-one.
All told, after Latta hit a corner 3-pointer, the Aztecs had held SJSU scoreless for 7:30 while the visitors made just one of their first 14 attempts from the field.
The second run was started by a 7 points in five seconds flurry, kicked off by Lee battling an and-one, with the fouling Spartan Amelie Sitterud also getting called for a technical foul. Panganiban split the tech free-throws, but out of the inbounds Williams found Latta alone in the corner again to snipe another triple and then Sofia Kelemeni added a top of the key 3 a minute later to push the lead out to 23.
Hamilton scored 6 of her points in the second half, which also saw Jackson take a long rebound off a missed 3-pointer the length of the court for a buzzer-beating jumper to close the third quarter.
San Diego State set season-highs with 24 assists and 49 rebounds, as well as equaling their campaign-best with 14 3-pointers. The Aztecs extended their winning streak to 11 games, while matching the 1995-96 team’s overall record to start to the season.
Up next is an early road game against the Colorado State Rams, who came into the day with the Mountain West’s best scoring defense, allowing only 55.7 points per game. Tip off is scheduled for 10 a.m. Pacific on Wednesday, Jan. 28 at Moby Arena and the game will be streamed on the Mountain West Network.
This story will be updated.
