Posted on: Saturday, March 12, 2005
Eighth seed Boise St. in WAC final
Associated Press
RENO, Nev. — Jason Ellis scored 25 points and Coby Karl made the game-winning free throws with 8.7 seconds left last night to send Boise State into the championship of the Western Athletic Conference tournament with an 86-85 win over Fresno State.
Jeff Chiu • Associated Press Boise State, which knocked off regular season champ Nevada on Thursday night, will meet second-seeded UTEP in today's championship.
Ja'Vance Coleman had 26 points for the Bulldogs (16-14), including a pair of 3-pointers in the last 1:28 before missing a final attempt that would have won the game with 2.5 seconds to play.
Donovan Morris added 16 points and Chris Berry had 15 for Fresno State, which trailed 49-43 at the half.
Boise State led by as much as 12, and went ahead 80-70 on Blackburn's 3-pointer with 5:20 left. But Fresno answered with a 15-4 run, taking an 85-84 lead when Kevin Bell stole the ball from Karl and made a layup with 30 seconds left.
Karl's final two free throws came one night after he was in the same spot on the free-throw line trailing Nevada by one. The son of Denver Nuggets coach George Karl made the first one Thursday but missed the second before Blackburn grabbed the ball and put it back in for the 73-72 upset of the 24th ranked Wolf Pack.
Omar Thomas scored 29 of his 31 points in the second half to lead Texas-El Paso into the championship game.
Giovanni St. Amant added 15 points on five 3-pointers, and Jason Williams had 10 for the second-seeded Miners (26-7), who won their sixth straight in a bid for the WAC tourney title and an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Michael Harris scored 19 points, Jason McKrieth added 17 and Morris Almond had 13 for third-seeded Rice (19-11).
Louisiana Tech faces Rice in title game
Erica Taylor scored 25 points and Tasha Crain added 20 to help Louisiana Tech defeat Fresno State, 92-87, in double overtime yesterday in the semifinals of the Western Athletic Conference women's tournament.
The top-seeded Lady Techsters (20-8) trailed by 15 points with 7:36 to go in regulation before going on a 21-6 run to tie the game at 73 with 54 seconds left. Neither team scored again in regulation, forcing the overtime.
Tech led 83-80 late in the first overtime before Veronica Mack hit a 3-pointer with 10.9 seconds left to tie it for Fresno State (20-10) and force the second overtime.
Crain scored four points in the second overtime to help Louisiana Tech advance to today's title game against Rice.
Laura Neaves had 18 points and 13 rebounds to lead Rice to a victory over San Jose State in the WAC women's semifinals.
Jessica Kellogg had 19 points and Lindsay Harris 17 to lead San Jose State (18-12).
Jermaine Blackburn added 22 points and Ellis grabbed 17 rebounds for the eighth-seeded Broncos (16-17), who outrebounded Fresno, 45-30, and led by 10 points with less than 6 minutes left before withstanding a late Bulldogs rally for an unlikely shot at the WAC tourney title.
Rice's Jamaal Moore, left, and Texas El-Paso's Thomas Gehrke battle for a rebound during their semifinal game. UTEP won, 85-77.
UTEP 85, Rice 77
WOMEN
Rice 76, San Jose St. 68
