American Candidate

Senior point guard Quenese Davis of the San Diego State Aztecs doesn’t say a whole lot. Her play speaks volumes.

Earlier this week she became the second Aztec women’s basketball player this season to reach the 1,000-point scoring plateau for her career, joining her more heralded running mate at guard, pre-season All-American candidate senior Jene Morris.

Friday night, in a non-conference game against Long Beach State, Davis had the headlines all to herself, scoring 22 points, grabbing eight rebounds and scoring the go-ahead basket with 39 seconds left as SDSU beat the 49ers, 67-62, at Viejas Arena.

With the score tied at 62-62, Davis drove the crowded lane and scored on a six-foot runner, the ball rolling around the rim and then finally in to provide the winning margin. With six seconds to play, she combined with her younger sister Coco on a double-team trap near the SDSU hoop to force a traveling violation on Long Beach’s Karina Figueroa — then hit two free throws at the other end to put the game away.

“This was a really, really big win for us,” said Aztecs coach Beth Burns, whose preseason Mountain West Conference favorites had lost four of their previous five games. “We’ve been working really hard to fight our way out of this slump, and we fought very hard (Friday night) to get back into the win column.”

The Aztecs (5-4) wouldn’t have gotten there without Davis, the 5-foot-10 floor leader from Sacramento, who was Burns’ first big-time recruit three Continue Reading →

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For one team, it was a trip to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. For another, it was a first step toward trying to reach that same stage again. All in all, Friday was a pretty good night for the San Diego State women.

Thanks to Cat Walker’s goal in the 39th-minute, the SDSU women’s soccer team defeated USD, 1-0, in Los Angeles to win its eighth-straight game overall and its first in NCAA Tournament play in 11 years.

The SDSU women’s basketball team, which reached round No. 2 of the Big Dance last season, opened its highly-anticipated 2009-10 campaign with a 64-42 victory at UC Irvine.

Beth Burns’ team was sloppy throughout, committing 26 turnovers, but led comfortably all the way behind 18 points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots from junior center Paris Johnson.

On the soccer pitch, things were much tighter for Mike Friesen’s club, which held on after Walker’s first-half goal to extend its unbeaten streak to 16 games. The Mountain West Conference champions (15-3-5) will meet host UCLA in the second round on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.

UCLA, ranked No. 3 in the country, has reached the Women’s Soccer NCAA Final Four in each of the last six seasons. The Bruins (18-2-1) blew out Boise State, 7-1, in their Tournament opener.

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