Fresno State women fend off Wyoming, reach MW final vs. Aztecs

Wyoming appeared headed for another big comeback victory Friday.

A day after rallying from 14 points down to defeat Colorado State, the Cowgirls erased two nine-point second-half deficits against Fresno State in the Mountain West tournament semifinals, finally going ahead with 13.7 seconds remaining.

But Fresno State got one more shot, and Ki-Ki Moore’s 5-foot floater with 2.7 seconds left gave the Bulldogs a 63-62 victory at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The basket sent the second-seeded Bulldogs (23-8) into today’s 7 p.m. final against top-seeded San Diego State (26-5). The defending champion Aztecs advanced with a 67-39 blowout of fifth-seeded New Mexico.

Fresno State didn’t panic after third-seeded Wyoming (24-7) staged yet another rally.

“You have to know that teams are going to go on runs,” said Moore, who scored 22 points. “They have good shooters.”

None better than Kayla Woodward, who also had 22 points. With the game on the line for the Cowgirls, the ball was in Woodward’s hands, and she put her team ahead 62-61 on a driving layup.

“Kayla is someone who works so hard on scoring in the summertime,” Wyoming coach Joe Legerski said. “She’ll make 15,000 to 20,000 shots in a summer — not shoot them, make them. With that kind of effort, you have a great deal of confidence in a young person.”

But plenty of time remained, and the teams exchanged timeouts with 9.6 seconds remaining. Moore got the ball and went past Wyoming’s Kaitlyn Mileto, who tried for the steal. Moore then put up the shot, putting the Bulldogs one game from winning the championship.

“We practiced these situations,” Fresno State coach Raegan Pebley said. “You don’t want to go to something that they’ve never seen before. So we put the ball in the hands of somebody that we trusted, and put her around people she knew where they were going to be at, and there were multiple options for that score.”

San Diego State scored the first 12 points against New Mexico (17-14) and never looked back in extending its winning streak to 17 games.

“When you start the game, you have to set the tone, the dynamic,” said San Diego State’s Chelsea Hopkins, a Mojave High School graduate who had 14 points and 14 rebounds. “That’s what we live to do against every opponent. We want them to feel our presence.”

Courtney Clements led the Aztecs with 15 points. No player scored in double figures for New Mexico.

The attendance of 5,936 set a tournament semifinals record, topping the total of 5,542 in 2007.

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