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San Diego State beats Utah in overtime 70-60

Mar 14, 2010 - 12:20 AM By ARNIE STAPLETON AP Sports Writer

LAS VEGAS(AP) -- This time, the San Diego State Aztecs won't have to sweat it out Monday to see if they're going to the women's NCAA tournament.

Behind 22 points from Quenese Davis, the third-seeded Aztecs secured an automatic bid Saturday when they beat Utah 70-60 in overtime for the Mountain West Conference tournament title.

"It's nice for the first time not to be up here crying because we lost," said Jene Morris, who scored six of her 21 points in the extra period.

San Diego State lost last year's title game to Utah, 63-58, then received an NCAA bid. In 2008, they lost the championship to New Mexico and were denied a postseason berth.

Without having another nerve-racking wait, the Aztecs (21-10) will have to find something else to do with their time.

"Probably be sleeping," Morris said.

Teammate Paris Johnson, who had 10 points and seven rebounds while doing the dirty work inside, figures she'll be in the trainer's room when the field is announced.

"Probably getting some treatment," Johnson said. "Our bodies are beat. We played three games, tough games. For me personally, I'm in the paint all the time going up against strong bodies. I'm pretty beat. So I'll probably be resting my body, get some ice baths, just relax."

The fourth-seeded Utes (22-11) led 55-50 with 5:29 left in regulation but they went the rest of regulation and all of overtime without another field goal.

"I wouldn't say we did anything differently besides kept them off the (offensive) glass," Davis said. "Coach pointed out to us at the timeout if we keep them off the O-glass, we'll be successful, and we were."

Those lack of second chances did in the Utes.

"They got rebounds at the wrong time," said Kalee Whipple, who scored 15 points for Utah. "They got their shots, and that led to us just kind of getting frustrated, I think, at times. We still fought hard. We just didn't hit a shot."

Utah was ahead 56-50 when Iwalani Rodrigues missed a layup with 3:44 left and Davis scored on a fastbreak at the other end, a sequence that deflated the Utes.

"Yeah, that was the buster," Utah coach Elaine Elliott said. "Yeah, that was it, no doubt about it. Because not only did we miss that, then I think they got the long pass. They laid it up right after that themselves. So that was the one key problem that obviously kind of set the tone the rest of the way."

The Aztecs had a shot to win it in regulation but couldn't get a good look at the basket after calling a timeout with 16 seconds left. Morris' contested 3-pointer was off-target as the horn sounded.

They dominated overtime, however, with Utah's only points coming on a pair of free throws by Janita Badon in the final minute.

Taryn Wicijowski's 19 points led Utah, which fell behind by six in overtime before getting off a shot.

The top two seeds had byes through the semifinal round, but that's where Utah dumped top-seeded TCU 69-57 and San Diego State routed second-seeded BYU 77-47 Friday night.

"We couldn't be more excited and proud than to be able to cut down the nets as Mountain West Conference tournament champions," Aztecs coach Beth Burns said after scaling the ladder to put the last snips on the nylon. "We played at a very high level all week long.

"I'm thrilled with the outcome, but I'm not surprised at the outcome."