Pure and utter heartbreak.
There is no better way to describe the way the Cowgirls’ loss in championship game of the Mountain West tournament.
There was no other way this loss would feel for either team, regardless of who loss as both teams had lost in the finals of the last two Mountain West tournament.
The entire game was a back-and-forth grudge match between the Cowgirls and the San Diego State Aztecs, as neither team was ever able to create enough separation to win this one cleanly at any point of the game.
It seemed all but over for the Cowgirls in the first overtime, as they were down five with a minute and a half remaining. McKinley Dickerson would rip the twine with a clutch triple, however, and Emily Mellema would come up with a clutch contested lay-in with seven seconds left to send us to the second overtime.
Another clutch 3 for McKinley Dickerson!
— Mountain West (@MountainWest) March 13, 2025
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The Cowgirls again found themselves playing catch-up in the second overtime as well, as the Aztecs would regain their five-point lead from the first overtime with just a minute remaining in the second. This time, it would be Malene Pederson who would come up with a big three-pointer to draw the Cowgirls within two. With just seven seconds again, Allyson Fertig would head to the free-throw line for a pair of charity shots to send the game to a third overtime. Despite hitting just 1/3 from the line beforehand, Fertig would calmly hit the pair and we’d go to a third overtime.
PEDERSEN ANSWERS
— Mountain West (@MountainWest) March 13, 2025
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The Cowgirls would run out of gas in the third overtime, however, as Mellema would narrowly miss yet another game-tying shot in the final 20 seconds of the third overtime, as the Aztecs would ice the game at the line and devastate the Cowgirls’ championship and NCAA tournament hopes with a grueling 72-68 win in the third overtime.
“What I told my team was, it wasn’t [because] we were short of toughness,” head coach Heather Ezell said. “Just came a play or two short.”
“To see their faces in the locker room, to know how bad they’re hurting, I wish I could take it away from them. They gave me everything they had.”
The Cowgirls’ season-high 25 turnovers would ultimately prove to be their undoing, as that mark also ended up being higher than the amount of shots they hit from the field, to which they were 24/65 (36.9%).
Besides the turnover margin, these teams were as close as they could possibly be in many categories, as one would expect from a triple overtime contest. Both teams under 40% from the field and around 80% from the charity stripe and the Aztecs only outrebounded the Cowgirls by a single board, winning the battle on the glass 44 to 43. The Cowgirls finished with one more assist than the Aztecs, but only forced the Aztecs to turn the ball over 14 times compared to their 25.
The Cowgirls will be unlikely to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament with their 23-11 record and few signature wins over potential tournament teams, so it is likely that the Cowgirls will be taking part in the WNIT for the fourth year in a row.
“They [will] have another chance to do this, to put the uniform on to represent the university, to represent the Cowgirls and to represent each other and to have a chance to come back and compete again and get the sour taste out of your mouth,” Ezell added after the loss.
