Boise State wins Mountain West women’s tournament for first time

As Boise State’s players celebrated on the Thomas &Mack Center floor, point guard Yaiza Rodriguez broke away from the pack, pulled her jersey over her face and fell backward on the court.

Overcome with emotion, Rodriguez thought about her family half a world away in Spain and the journey she and her teammates took to reach this moment.

Her tears were those of joy as the Broncos celebrated their 66-60 victory over New Mexico on Friday before a partisan Lobos crowd of 5,195 — the largest for a Mountain West women’s championship — that clinched the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

“I was thinking about my parents, that they cannot be here watching me,” Rodriguez said. “About the team, we worked so hard to get this win, and we got it.”

Rodriguez, a five-year member of the Spanish national team program, scored 11 of her team-high 18 points in the second half and effectively ran the offense.

“She’s played so much basketball,” Broncos coach Gordy Presnell said. “She’s really fired up when there’s any kind of tournament. If we were in a Thanksgiving tournament, she’d be fired up.”

The Broncos (22-10) proved to be tournament worthy despite coming in as the fourth seed. They will find out Monday their NCAA Tournament destination.

This was Boise State’s second conference championship. The Broncos won the 2007 Western Athletic Conference title, which also was the last time they advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

No. 2 seed New Mexico (20-12) made several charges at Boise State, three times cutting a 14-point second-half deficit to five. But the Lobos never got closer.

New Mexico’s Antiesha Brown led all scorers with 23 points. Boise State’s Brooke Pahukoa, who scored 16 points, was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. She was joined on the all-tournament team by Rodriguez, Brown, Alex Sheedy of Fresno State and Rebecca Woodberry of San Jose State.

“There’s not many chances we get to play in front of that many people,” Pahukoa said. “It was a special opportunity. This was probably the best game we’ve had as a team. That’s what you want at the end of the year is have that championship game be your best game.”

Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65.