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Final Women's 2026 Mountain West Championship bracket. Image courtesy of the Mountain West Conference.
LAS VEGAS – The recipe remained the same all season for the Colorado State Rams women’s basketball team: stifling defense and efficient offense stirred by senior leadership.
It was only appropriate that the Mountain West’s top scoring and field goal percentage defense blanketed the unlikely ninth-seeded finalists Air Force, as the third-seed Rams punched their ticket to the Big Dance with a 56-42 win on Tuesday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Colorado State held the gritty, gutty Falcons to just 18.2% shooting in the second half and a season scoring low, while getting 17 points from senior guard Brooke Carlson and 15 points from senior forward Madelyn Bragg, who both earned all tournament selections.
The decisive run, a 9-0 burst began with just over six minutes remaining until 2:09 remaining. Bragg scored 5 points to help set the Rams inside-outside attack that got scores by Carlson and guard Kloe Froebe. Air Force was never able to come closer than 7 points the rest of the way, as CSU made 14 of 18 free throws in the final frame and 11 of 14 in the last two minutes to salt the result.
Colorado State earned their first NCAA Tournament berth since the 2015-16 season and the program’s seventh all-time.
Senior guard Milahnie Perry closed her tournament for the ages with 14 points, finishing with 92 points to set a new single-tournament record while earning Most Valuable Player. Fellow senior forward Emily Adams had 12 points and six rebounds to also earn a spot on the all-tournament team, while Alexis Cortez added 11 points and a game-high 9 rebounds.
It was the first time that the Falcons reached the Mountain West tournament championship game, in addition to being the first time that any Air Force basketball team won multiple games at the Mountain West Championships.
The third quarter was a defensive struggle, with both teams managing just three field goals apiece. CSU took control by dashing off a 6-0 stretch while Air Force was held scoreless over 5:06 and missed eight in a row from the field. The Falcons attempted eight more shots in the quarter, but got scores from Adams and Perry in the final 3:28 to pull within 34-32.
Both teams had big pushes in the opening half, with Colorado State getting the first big run of the game by dashing off a 9-0 stretch following Jayda McNabb’s game-opening score. It was part of a stretch where CSU made seven consecutive shots and opened a 9-point lead just over six minutes into the game, with senior guardMarta Leimane scoring the first of six CSU layups in the opening 10 minutes.
All five of the Rams starters scored in the first quarter, with senior guard Hannah Ronsiek netting 5 points and hitting the only CSU triple of the first half. Then the Falcons defense swung the tide late as Emily Adams scored her 8th point of the quarter, then Milahnie Perry scored the final two buckets of the quarter to make it 17-14 Rams.
The momentum stayed wearing blue, as Air Force made it an 11-0 run over 6:02 between the quarters as Alexis Cortez hit a paint jumper and then knocked down the first Falcon triple at the 6:45 mark of the second. CSU responded by scoring the next 5 points with Mia Bragg scoring the first of her two buckets in the quarter
Cortez scored 9 of the Falcons’ 12 points in the quarter, with a triple from Perry the only other basket as the teams went to halftime tied at 26-26.
Mountain West Newcomer of the Year Lexus Bargesser did not dress for the game, wearing a brace on her left knee. She injured her leg after planting and attempting to drive baseline around three minutes into the second quarter of the Rams’ semifinal win over UNLV.
Leimane drew into the starting lineup in place of Bargesser, coming off a 16 point performance in the semifinals.
Colorado State will find their seeding fate for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, March 15. The Rams entered the day as the top ranked Mountain West team in the NET rankings at 70 ranked second in the conference in Wins-Above-Bubble at 82.
This story will be updated.
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