SAN DIEGO – It was only appropriate that after Nala Williams grabbed the final rebound of the game in the final 10 seconds, there was a quick moment of confusion before remembering to get the ball into the front court.
The looks on the faces of the San Diego State women’s basketball team were filled with relief when the horn sounded to clinch a share of the Mountain West regular season championship with an up-and-down 68-59 win over the Fresno State Bulldogs on Saturday afternoon at Viejas Arena.
It was only just before when SDSU director of athletics JD Wicker presented the trophy to the team that the squad’s celebrations began, as scarlet, black and white confetti rained. It’s the first regular season title for the program since the 2012-13 season and fourth in the Mountain West era.
Williams led the way with 14 points and six assists, while Kaelyn Hamilton came off the bench for 11 points while Nat Martinez had 10 points as both made a pair of critical long balls.
While it didn’t come in as high volume as many games this season, the 3-point shot proved critical for the Aztecs, with the majority of their seven makes from beyond the arc coming when they needed it most.
The Scarlet and Black built their lead out to a game-high of 14 points with 5:49 remaining on Williams’ jumper, but Fresno State responded by scoring 11 of the next 13 points to pull within 5 points with 2:18 to play.
Then Kennedy Lee knocked down her first of the game from downtown at her favorite spot at the top of the key, the final of her 9 points in the game to go with and SDSU-best six rebounds. Martinez followed up with a right corner triple with 39 seconds remaining that sealed the result.
In the third quarter SDSU had built an 8-point lead on a driving score by Williams, the Bulldogs dashed off an 8-0 run to pull even with just over three minutes played. But back-to-back triples by Hamilton and Martinez swung the momentum as the Aztecs slowly but surely extended their edge the rest of way.
Hamilton scored back to back driving layups to give her 7 points in the quarter, then the Scarlet and Black closed with back-to-back scores from Martinez and Naomi Panganiban to take a 51-42 lead after the third.
The Aztecs made 13 of 27 from the field in the second half while holding Fresno State to 10 of 27. Four of the seven 3-pointers came in the final 20 minutes for SDSU.
Fresno State’s aggressive switching defense, fueled by frenetic substitutions, disrupted the timing of SDSU offense that seemed to also carry over to the defensive side.
The Aztecs missed their first three shots from the field and Martinez picked up a pair of early fouls. Terry-Hutson went to the bench early, getting a spark from Maria Konstantinidou who split a free throw pair and then converted an and-one while grabbing four rebounds in four minutes.
It was part of a 7-0 run over a 2:13 stretch that gave the hosts a 4-point lead, but the Bulldogs rallied to tie with two minutes remaining in the quarter. The Aztecs closed with a triple from Williams and then the senior guard found Lee for the final bucket of the first 10 and a 16-14 lead. SDSU made just 5 of 15 from the field and 5 of 9 at the line while committing five turnovers.
Williams opened the second with another 3-pointer, then Hamilton scored on a drive to extend the edge to 7-points, but the Bulldogs scored 10 of the next 12 points on a pair of buckets by Morelia Chavez and Emilia Long to take their first lead since four minutes into the game, making four of five shots.
Long led Fresno State with 14 points while Danae Powell had 13 points with 7 rebounds and Chavez added 12 points.
But the Aztecs closed the half with 8 of the final 11 points, starting with CJ Latta knocking down a left corner trey, then Panganiban converting an and-one on a paint drive. Alyssa Jackson closed the half making a free-throw line jumper with six seconds remaining for a 31-27 edge. The Aztecs allowed six layups while shooting just 35.5% in the opening 20, but held the Bulldogs to 37.0% from the field.
A game after earning her 200th career win, Terry-Hutson became the second coach to lead San Diego State to a regular season conference title. Beth Burns led the program to three Western Athletic Conference championships in the 1990’s, and then three Mountain West titles across the 2008-09 to 2012-13 seasons.
Two of SDSU’s final three games of the regular season are on the road, beginning with a trip to Boise State. The Broncos remained three games back after beating San José State 71-48 on Saturday afternoon. The Scarlet and Black won the previous meeting 83-54 on Dec. 20, 2025 in their first conference home game of the season.
The Aztecs can clinch the championship outright with a win, as UNLV also sits three games back in the standings after an 81-64 home win over Nevada.
Tip-off against Boise State is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 25 at Extra Mile Arena, and will be streamed on the Mountain West Network with an audio-only stream available on GoAztecs.com.
This story will be updated.
