UNR women look to make another deep MW tournament run

UNR entered last year’s Mountain West women’s tournament as the No. 7 seed but advanced to the championship game, losing at the buzzer to Boise State.

Do the Wolf Pack have another run in them?

No. 8 UNR, which got three big 3-pointers in the fourth quarter by Emma Torbert on Sunday to beat No. 9 San Jose State 78-68 in a first-round game, will find out quickly. The Wolf Pack (12-18) face top-seeded Boise State (25-4) at noon Monday at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Though the Broncos won both regular-season meetings, one was by just a point.

“They kind of had a double-digit lead the whole game,” Wolf Pack coach Amanda Levens said. “When they’re firing on all cylinders, they’re just so dangerous because they can score at every position even when they sub.

“And so for us, we’re pretty much the underdog. But for our team, we also believe that we can compete with anybody. Can we win? I don’t know. We’ll find out (Monday).”

Against San Jose State (6-24), Jade Redmon led the Wolf Pack with 19 points and Torbert scored 15. Danae Marquez scored 19 for the Spartans.

With two starters back from last season, this isn’t the same UNR team. But there are lessons from that run that apply this week.

“I think the returners who played here have a sense of confidence,” Levens said. “We don’t visit this venue all season, so coming back, even for me, there are a lot of great feelings and memories of just how fun that tournament was for us last year.”

Redmon is one of those confident players.

“I think from last year we learned that in the tournament it’s anybody’s game,” she said. “And it’s just a matter of coming out and playing a complete game.”

Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.