No. 1 seed UNLV falls in the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference Tournament

For UNLV, the untimely defeat casts a pall on what has otherwise been a very successful season. UNLV entered the tournament on the heels of winning a fourth straight regular-season MWC title. Playing in their home city, the Lady Rebels were viewed as a strong favorite to repeat for a fourth time as MWC Tournament champions.

But something was off for the Lady Rebels from the outset of MW Madness. On Monday night, UNLV struggled mightily to find a rhythm against No. 8 Boise State, surviving with a furious second-half rally to win by a score of 80-70. On Tuesday night, facing a motivated San Diego State squad, the Lady Rebels were never quite able to get on track, shooting only 27.7% from the field.

Now, after losing two of their last three games, the Lady Rebels find themselves squarely on the bubble and in uncertain waters.

“I don’t honestly have a ton of words because we haven’t done this much, which is a good thing,” UNLV head coach Lindy La Rocque told reporters after the game. “In the locker room with the team, here with you, I haven’t been here before. When you’re at the top, when you get knocked off, the fall is long and hard, and it hurts.”

For senior forward Alyssa Brown, the pain of the loss was too much to bear. “I just can’t stop crying,” she told reporters after the game. “[This program means] everything, honestly. The love I have for the program and Lindy, for the staff, there’s no words for it. I’ve had a great time at UNLV. I’m super proud of the squad. It’s something that’s really special to be a part of.”

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La Rocque wouldn’t blame fatigue for her team’s early exit from MW Madness. “I think it’s a lot of pressure for these young people,” La Rocque told reporters after the game. “These two seniors won three championships, and they would give anything to win another one. But just the target that that creates, the pressure, subconsciously even that builds. Public pressure, just the expectation that this is what you do, so why aren’t you doing it? That’s a lot for young people.”

With a NET ranking of 48, the question now becomes whether UNLV will receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Needless to say, La Rocque believes they deserve one.

“I think that we deserve it. Plain and simple. Statistically, metrics, whatever you want to say — wins, losses — I think it all matters. I think you have to look at a full body of work. I think you have to look at everything and actually use everything, not just pick and choose what you want to justify whatever your end answer is going to be. I think at this point, we’ve been there three times. We also deserve the benefit of the doubt, frankly. We’ve established some credibility that we should be able to rely on in this situation.”

But if UNLV receives a bid, at whose expense will it come? Virginia Tech? Princeton? Harvard? A number of bubble teams around the nation are undoubtedly fretting over the prospects of a two-bid MWC for the first time since 2010 when TCU and San Diego State both received bids.

For San Diego State, the win draws attention to a program that many people have overlooked.

The Aztecs have been playing with a chip on their shoulder lately. Despite a 24-9 record and a fourth-place finish in the 11-team MWC, only one San Diego State athlete, Veronica Sheffey, made the 10-person All-Mountain West Team, and no Aztecs received honorable mention or were selected for the All-Mountain West Defensive Team. 

Did this give head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson’s squad more motivation to win? “I think so,” Terry-Hutson told the media. “But we also talked about; it’s not about that. Would you rather have an all-conference honor or a piece of the net? We decided we prefer the net.”

The Aztecs are remarkably well-balanced, with no player averaging more than 11 points per game. Against UNLV on Tuesday night, five San Diego State players finished in double figures, led by Sheffey’s game high 15 points.

“That’s part of the recruiting pitch when we bring kids in,” said Terry-Hutson. “We want to play this way all the time. We want to have people on the floor that can score, and we don’t need one kid to shoot the ball 30 times. I think we’re at our best when we share. And we’re a hard team to defend. I just think we play better that way. Some other teams have success the other way where you have someone scoring 30.”

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In the second semifinal of the evening, No. 2 Wyoming shirked off a gritty Fresno State squad to advance to the championship game against San Diego State.

After keeping the game close throughout the first half, the Bulldogs struggled to contain Allyson Fertig, Wyoming’s indomitable center and the MWC Player of the Year. Fresno State tried to front and double Fertig whenever she entered the paint, but the 6’4 senior from Glendo, Wyoming, would not be denied, tallying a team high 17 points on 7-for-12 shooting and hauling down 18 rebounds.

“It’s my job to rebound,” Fertig quipped after the game. “For now, just our team dynamics and stuff, I’ve really taken that rebounding role on.”

The Cowgirls now have a chance to earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament for only the third time in program history and for the first time since 2021 with a win Wednesday night against No. 4 seed Fresno State.

The expectation coming into the MW Tournament was that Wyoming would have to beat UNLV for the second time this season in order to cut down the nets, but the Cowgirls couldn’t care less who their opponent is.

“We didn’t really care who we played today,” senior Emily Mellema told reporters after Wyoming beat Fresno State. “We knew we were going to go win [the MWC Tournament]. That’s what we talked about coming into it. We’re going to win three straight [games]. That’s still the goal. We really didn’t care which three those were.”

Wyoming coach Heather Ezell believes her team is on a mission. “I told [the fans] after senior night, after we beat UNLV, to come to Vegas and watch us cut down the nets,” Ezell said. “I’m holding to my promise. That’s what I want, to make sure they’re going to hold to theirs and be in the stands.”