Underdog’s unlikely run continues in MW women’s tourney. Boise State is the victim
The Boise State women’s basketball team appeared to receive a major postseason gift over the weekend.
On Sunday in Las Vegas, No. 9-seeded Air Force defeated No. 1 San Diego State in a major upset in the second round of the Mountain West Tournament. That result meant the Aztecs, who defeated the Broncos twice in the regular season, were out of the way.
Instead, No. 5 seed Boise State would face the Falcons, a team with a losing record, in Monday night’s semifinals, and BSU defeated them twice in the regular season, once by 11 and once by 8.
But playing in Tuesday’s championship game will be Air Force, which eked out a 68-66 victory to end any NCAA Tournament hopes for the Broncos (25-9).
The Falcons (16-17) are the first No. 9 seed to make the finals in either the men’s or women’s Mountain West tourneys, and the feat comes after they went 7-13 in conference play in the regular season. Now three wins in three days has Air Force in an unlikely spot.
“Credit and kudos to Air Force for game planning, and then their seniors. ... (Milahnie) Perry put them on her back for quite a while and just finished,” Boise State assistant coach Cariann Ramirez told KBOI in a postgame interview.
Perry, a senior guard, finished with a game-high 27 points. The Broncos were led by sophomore forward Libby Hutton’s 25 points.
The Falcons put to bed any notion of an easy ride for Boise State early in the game. Air Force went on an 8-0 run to take a 10-4 lead while putting the Broncos under immense pressure when they were on offense.
It was a theme that would last all evening, as the Broncos, a good shooting team, managed just three 3-point attempts all evening, making only one.
“They just pressure you and pressure you and pressure you, and force you into making tough twos,” Ramirez said. “And so the three-ball wasn’t available for us. And then on the flip side, they came out and shot the ball incredibly well.”
Air Force shot 24-for-56 (42.9%) as a team and 9-for-24 (37.5%) from beyond the arc. Boise State actually shot better, going 25-for-49 (51%) from the field, but the lack of outside points showed. Hutton became the Broncos’ main scoring outlet in both driving into the paint and receiving the ball in the post.
Her efforts gave the Broncos a slender 31-29 lead at halftime, with the Falcons having led by as many as nine points in the first half.
The second half would be as testy as the first half promised, with neither team leading by more than three points until a late 9-0 run from the Falcons gave them a 63-57 edge with 2 minutes remaining.
Boise State would hang around for the final two-minute period, which stretched to about 30 minutes of actual time, as both teams repeatedly sent each other to the free-throw line and called timeouts.
Even after all of that, Boise State had the chance to tie or win the game on the final possession. A contested layup from senior guard Dani Bayes didn’t fall, and the Broncos kicked the ball out after grabbing a rebound, but time ran out.
“We were there until the end,” Ramirez said. “We really tried to lengthen the game out and everything. I’m heartbroken for our seniors.”
