San Diego State Women Can’t Stop Miller : No Matter What Aztecs Try, USC Finds Answer in 90-77 Win

You be San Diego State women’s basketball Coach Earnest Riggins for a night. You try to design a defense to shut down USC’s high-scoring forward Cheryl Miller--and the rest of the Trojans, for that matter.

Riggins is probably open for suggestions. He tried just about everything Saturday night in the Aztecs’ Western Collegiate Athletic Assn. game against USC.

First, he used a box-and-one, with Dee Dee Duncan guarding Miller. Next, it was a triangle-and-two, with players assigned to Yolanda Fletcher and Rhonda Windham. Then, a little zone and mostly player-to-player to-man in the second half.

Nothing worked.

Miller and the Trojans handled all the Aztecs had to offer and ran away with a 90-77 victory in front of 2,189 fans in Peterson Gym at San Diego State.

Miller turned in one of her best all-around performances of the season, scoring a game-high 37 points and grabbing 19 rebounds. She also had seven steals, five assists and two blocked shots, but she wasn’t the only reason USC scored a season-high 90 points.

Fletcher added 22 points, and Windham, who led the Trojans’ fast break, had 8 points and 12 assists.

The second-place and 12th-ranked Trojans improve to 7-2 in conference (17-6 overall), and third-place and 14th-ranked San Diego State drops to 8-4 and 19-7. The win also avenged the Trojans’ earlier, 61-59, loss to the Aztecs at the Sports Arena.

In that game, USC was outmuscled, outhustled and outplayed. The Trojans were outrebounded, 50-36, and shot a miserable 37% from the floor. Saturday night, they looked like a different team.

USC shot 52% (34 of 66) from the field and ran at every opportunity. Three times in the second half, the Trojans made fast-break baskets after San Diego had scored. they outrebounded the bigger Aztecs, 42-40.

“We tried to break when their backs were turned, and we caught them off guard,” Miller said. “The key tonight was our defense and rebounding. We didn’t allow second and third shots, and we played with 100% more intensity than we did the last time. We knew they’d play a lot of defenses, but we were prepared.”

Miller was extremely tough to contain Saturday night because she was consistently hitting jumpers from 18 to 22 feet out. Fletcher also made baskets from all over the court and the Trojans, on the whole, were too fast for the Aztecs, who were hobbled by injuries to forwards Tina Hutchinson and Shelda Arceneaux.

“Cheryl didn’t hurt us as bad as Fletcher did,” Riggins said. “We shut down the other kids in the last game, but we couldn’t afford to let Fletcher get the hot hand. They pushed the ball up the floor, and their transition game hurt us.”

Duncan scored a team-high 19 points for San Diego State, and guard Penny Toler, who had scored 104 points in the Aztecs’ four previous wins, added 17. Hutchinson scored 12 points but only played 19 minutes and was never a factor.