By Andrew Hartley(@andrewhart1ey) – Spear Reporter
Sydni Summers(left) and Amyhia Moreland(right) double teaming attempting to force a turnover. l Photo by Andrew Hartley – The Spear
San Diego State had an 11-0 run to close out the first quarter that continued an unfortunate trend for the Spartans. Digging a hole too big for them to surmount in the second half.
Despite outscoring the Aztecs(12-8, 3-4 MW) in the second half, SJSU(6-12, 1-5 MW) suffered their fourth straight loss, this time to the Aztecs Saturday night 63-51.
“We wanted to get off to our best start and that didn’t happen tonight,” said SJSU head coach April Phillips.
SJSU has now been outscored 93-39 in the first quarter of their last four games.
11 Spartans took the court tonight. While that’s promising for depth purposes, it’s difficult to find continuity in the rotation. Solving this first quarter problem may be attributed to fine tuning those lineups. Saturday marked the fifth different starting lineup in as many games.
“Now that there’s more, it’s a matter of figuring out what that rotation is going to be,” said Phillips after Wednesday’s loss to Boise State.
The Spartan defense had no answer for SDSU’s offense early, allowing them to shoot 50% from the field in the first half. Adryana Quezada was a large part of that, scoring 13 of her 15 points in the first half.
And the long ball wasn’t working either. SJSU shot just 4-for-19 from three with all four makes coming from freshman Sydni Summers. Summers led the team in minutes played but also shot 4-for-12 from three.
The interior is where it found success in the second half led by Amhyia Moreland. Moreland had a team-high 18 points accompanied by four blocks and seven rebounds. SJSU managed 16 points in the paint in the second half.
Adjustments made at halftime have been another trend along with the bad first quarters. The Spartans have outscored their opponents in the second half in three of those same last four games. But it’s difficult to come back when that gap is large.
“We definitely don’t want that to be our identity,” said coach Phillips.
Where to next:
SJSU won’t play again for a week, giving them a much needed recovery period. It’ll stay on the road and compete against Colorado State on Jan. 27 at noon.