SDSU Lady Aztecs, UC San Diego Lady Tritons women basketball teams represented in March Madness

The San Diego State women’s basketball team was ousted in the quarterfinals of this year’s Mountain West Conference championship tournament but found new life after receiving an invitation to play in the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament.

The No. 4 seed Lady Aztecs defeated Big West Conference regular season champion UC Irvine, 61-55, in a first-round contest on March 19 to tip off the 32-team tournament. SDSU then eliminated McNeese State, 56-41, in a second-round match on March 22 to advance to the tourney quarterfinals against No. 2 Kansas on March 26.

The Lady Aztecs hung close, trailing by a single point through three quarters, but ultimately ended their season with an 85-78 setback to finish the season with a 27-6 overall record.

The win over UCI was SDSU’s first postseason win since 2013.

It was a tight game throughout with 12 lead changes and nine ties, but down the stretch the Lady Aztecs forced three turnovers and made clutch free throws to finish the game on an 8-0 run to secure the victory.

“We were locked in at the end,” SDSU head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson said after the game. “We knew who they were going to go to, so we made sure it was somewhat challenging for them.”

SDSU won the Mountain West regular season title with a 19-1 record to earn the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament but fell to No. 9 Air Force, 83-76, in the quarterfinals to face an early exit.

The Lady Aztecs continued their quest with a the 15-point win over McNeese to tie a school record with their 27th win of the season.

“I’m so proud of this group and every win now is setting a new record,” Terry-Hutson said after the game. “We had a fantastic defensive effort and that’s how we separated ourselves.”

Kansas shot 60.4 percent from the floor to 54.5 percent for SDSU to eliminate the Lady Aztecs from further play. The game remained tight, tied 70-70 with 5:32 to play in the fourth quarter.

SDSU was heavily rewarded in the Mountain West postseason awards. Terry-Hutson was named Coach of the Year. Nala Williams was named the Mountain West Player of the Year, Naomi Panganiban to the All-Mountain West Team and Kaelyn Hamilton the Sixth Player of the Year Award.

The Lady Aztecs have now made the postseason in three of the last four seasons (WNIT 2023, NCAA 2025, WBIT 2026).

Making waves
While SDSU was shut out of this year’s NCAA tournament, UC San Diego’s women’s team made its second consecutive NCAA appearance after receiving the No. 14 seed as this year’s Big West Conference champion.

The Lady Tritons’ season ended with an 86-40 loss at No. 3 TCU on, March 20. UC San Diego which defeated Hawaii, 60-48, to earn its second consecutive Big West championship as the conference’s automatic NCAA qualifier. finished 24-9.

Makayla Rose, who had 17 points and eight rebounds in the conference title game, was named the Big West Championship Most Outstanding Player while Erin Condron (22 points, 14 rebounds, two steals) was named to the all-tournament team.

A conference-best six Lady Tritons were recognized on the All-Big West Conference team: Condron and Rose (back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year) on the First Team, honorable mentions Sabrina Ma, Dymonique Maxie and Rosa Smith and Lev Feiman on the All-Freshman team.

UC San Diego is coming off a season in which it set a record for most wins (24) in the Division I era, most points in one game (94 against Portland State on Nov. 30) and a program high 22 steals and 31 turnovers (Jan. 31 against CSU Northridge). Condron set the school’s Division I scoring record with 32 points in a Feb. 5 game at Long Beach State. Rose, the Lady Tritons’ scoring leader on 11 separate occasions with 20 double-double efforts, recorded her 1,500th career point in a senior day game against UC Santa Barbara, finishing with a game high 25 points.

USBL standings: The San Diego Surf continues its community tour with a game this Satrurday, April 4, at Montgomery High School at 7 p.m. against the Los Angeles Blue Waves. The Surf is 4-2; the Blue Waves are 4-4.

The Surf defeated the Spokane Lilac City Legends, 109-106, in a game Sunday at Lincoln High School following last Friday’s 111-88 win over the Blue Waves at Lincoln High. The Surf has added former Helix player Aaron Felix to the lineup.