Updated at 6:33 p.m., Tuesday, March 6, 2007
San Jose State beats Idaho in WAC women tournament
Associated Press
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Reserve Brittany Powell scored 20 points as San Jose State opened the Western Athletic Conference Women's Tournament today with a 72-66 win over Idaho.The Spartans will face top-seeded Boise State in the quarterfinals today.
Hawai'i will play Fresno State at 9 a.m. Hawai'i time in the other quarterfinal today. The winner will play the Boise State-San Jose State winner on Friday.
Powell was part of a San Jose State (5-26, 5-12) bench that outscored the Vandals' bench 38-9.
The teams went into halftime tied at 34 behind the play of Powell, who scored 14, and the Vandals' Lindsey Koppen, who had 12 points in the first half. The Spartans grabbed the definitively lead when they outscored Idaho (6-22, 3-14) 20-9 in the first six minutes of the second half for a 54-43 lead.
Koppen finished with 22 points on 7 of 15 shooting, including five 3-point shots for the Vandals who hit 9 of 31 3-point shots.
Liz Witte added 13 for the Vandals.
The Vandals came within 59-56 with 6:13 left following back-to-back 3-pointers by Koppen and Sara Dennehy. The Spartans responded with an 8-2 run, and the Vandals could not cut the lead to less than five points the rest of the way.
