Aztec Women Run Down USD : In San Diego Debut, Perry Has 32 for SDSU, 85-61

Chana Perry, San Diego State’s highly touted junior forward, made her San Diego debut Tuesday night and said she is quickly making the transition to the Aztecs’ fast-paced style.

The University of San Diego never could, as the Aztecs won, 85-61, in a nonconference game at the USD Sports Center.

It was the home opener for USD (1-2). The Aztecs improved to 2-1.

Perry sat out last season as a redshirt after she transferred to SDSU from Northeast Louisiana University two years ago. She said the time off turned into a valuable education.

“The biggest difference is that my old team was not as fast,” Perry said. “We ran only when we had the opportunity. It wasn’t forced to where we pushed the ball all of the time.”

Perry had her best game of the season Tuesday night, scoring a game-high 32 points with 13 rebounds.

Most of her points came from under the basket on passes from forward Jessica Haynes, who added 26 points.

Aztec Coach Earnest Riggins said he hoped Perry would have received even more feeds underneath.

“I thought we should have passed more to her,” Riggins said. “We were a little timid, and I don’t think we were blocking out well.”

There’s no reason why the Aztecs should have appeared timid. With Perry (6-5), Brooke Meadows (6-4) and Connie Waikle (6-9) on the floor most of the game, the Aztecs towered above the Toreras, whose tallest player is 6-2 Christi English.

But the Aztecs were outrebounded in the first half, 20-19. SDSU improved in the second half, 31-14.

“Height has nothing to do with rebounding,” Perry said. “We weren’t boxing them out (in the first half). We made better contact in the second half.”

For much of the game, SDSU had a 10-point lead. The Aztecs had a chance to take a 13-point lead early in the second half when Perry scored six straight points, but she missed three foul shots during the scoring spree.

“I know I’m going to be fouled a lot this year,” she said. “I should be shooting around 90% (from the free throw line).”

Tuesday, she shot 44% (4 of 9).

USD led only twice in the opening half, taking its biggest lead, 10-7, after Candida Echeverria sank a 12-footer 5:14 into the game.

From there, the Aztecs took control. SDSU built its biggest lead of the first half, 31-19, when Perry scored on a Haynes pass in the middle of the key with 3:20 to play.

But USD steadily trimmed the lead, mostly behind the play of freshman forward Molly Hunter, who scored five straight points after entering the game with a minute to play in the first half. Hunter made 3 of 4 free throws in the one-minute span to cut SDSU’s lead to 33-28.

USD made a run late in the game, cutting the lead to 60-53 on Echeverria’s 30-foot jumper. But SDSU picked up the pace and quickly outdistanced the Toreras in the final minutes on a series of fast breaks.