Aztec Women’s Starting Point Guard Says She Will Not Return Next Season

Penny Toler, a point guard who was San Diego State’s second leading scorer last season, said Thursday she has no plans to play for the Aztec women’s basketball team next season.

Toler averaged 14.3 points per game, and helped lead the the Aztecs to the NCAA playoffs. She was the team’s leading scorer after Tina Hutchinson was sidelined with a knee injury.

Toler, a 5-foot 8-inch high school All-American from St. Anthony’s High in Washington, was a second-team All-West Coast Athletic Assn. selection.

Earnest Riggins, the San Diego State coach, said he met with Toler at the National Sports Festival on Tuesday, but said she did not mention her plans to leave the team.

“If he didn’t know, he knows now,” said Toler, who returned to her home in Washington, D.C., Thursday. “I’m not going back. I don’t want to go there anymore, and I don’t want to talk about it. I told him before I left school that I wasn’t coming back, and he said to think about it. I thought about it.”

Said Riggins: “I don’t know if someone got in her head this summer when she was at home. . .

“We worked with Penny, and I thought she made great strides toward the end of the season.”

Early in the season, Toler was removed from the starting lineup because she made too many turnovers.

“She had a lot of growing up to do,” Riggins said. “She came from a club (high school) where there was nobody else but her. It’s hard to coach superstars coming out of high school. Because of her style of play, she had to learn to tone her game down. She had to play as more of a team player than an individual.”

Toler is unsure where she will play next season.