The women’s basketball teams from San Diego State and UC San Diego each won road games Saturday afternoon to protect their respective conference leads.
The Tritons scored a 79-68 win at UC Riverside behind the efforts of guards Makayla Rose (24 points) and freshman reserve Lev Feiman (20 points, three assists and four steals).
San Diego State scored a 78-64 win at Nevada after leading by 34 points after three quarters to maintain a two-game lead in the Mountain West Conference.
The Aztecs reached the 20-win plateau for a fourth straight season, tying a program record set from 1994-97. The Aztecs are now 20-4 overall, 14-1 in conference play and 9-1 in road games.
The Aztecs led by as many as 37 points and entered the fourth quarter with a 69-35 lead. But Nevada (8-17, 4-11) finished the game on a 16-1 run.
“I’m proud of our ability to win on the road,” said Aztec coach Stacie Terry-Hutson. “We played really good basketball for about 30 minutes. We had a good start to the game and kind of put them away. We’re a young group, but we’re mature. We still need to learn how to finish.”
Maria Konstantinidou came off the bench to score 12 points on 6-for-6 shooting. Kennedy Lee also had 12 points, while Naomi Panganiban and Nala Williams and Kaelyn Hamilton all finished with 10.
Nine Aztecs scored and 10 played more than 10 minutes.
San Diego State maintained its two-game lead over UNLV (17-8, 12-3) heading into Wednesday night’s meeting between the Mountain West leaders at Viejas Arena.
Meanwhile, UCSD improved to 18-7 overall and 13-2 in Big West Conference play with their win over the Highlanders (7-17, 5-9). The victory came two nights after a triple-overtime loss to UC Davis.
Playing every minute for the 10th time this season, Rose went 8-for-16 from the field and connected on all three of her 3-point attempts. Feiman scored a season-high 20 points in just 20 minutes.
UCSD’s full-court pressure defense forced the Highlanders into 23 turnovers, leading to 21 points.
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