SDSU Claims Mountain West Championship with 72-68, Triple-Overtime Win over Wyoming

LAS VEGAS -- The fourth-seeded San Diego State women’s basketball team claimed its first Mountain West Tournament title in 13 years with a 72-68, triple-overtime win over second-seeded Wyoming Wednesday night at Thomas & Mack Arena in Las Vegas. It was the third MW Tournament championship for the Aztecs (25-9), who have 25 victories in a season for the first time since winning a school-record 27 in the 2012-13 campaign.

Veronica Sheffey scored a career-high 24 points to go along six rebounds and five assists en route to being named the tournament’s most valuable player. Naomi Panganiban chipped in with 17 points and joined Sheffey on the all-tournament team.

Cali Clark, meanwhile, became the only Division I player this century to have a conference tournament game with at least 17 rebounds, six steals and three blocks. Clark also scored 12 points for her seventh double-double of the season.

Kim Villalobos nearly joined Clark with a double-double, scoring 11 points with nine rebounds and four steals.

The game featured 16 lead changes and 12 ties, and was the first Division I conference final to have three-plus overtimes since the 2013 SWAC Final went four overtimes (Prairie View A&M over MVSU). The game’s largest lead was five points as SDSU avenged a pair of losses in the regular season to the Cowgirls (22-11).

"I'm out of breath. I'm tired so I know they're tired,” San Diego State head coach Stacie Terry-Hutson said. “What a fun game; what a great game for women's basketball and for the Mountain West against a really good opponent. I just want to shout out Wyoming because people sleep on the Mountain West. We have a great league with a lot of great coaches and that was really, really fun to be a part of. I'm proud of our girls. They battled. We had a taste of this on March 13, 2024. I reminded them that this is where we were at last year, but on the other side of it. We were really hungry and I thought that they were not going to be denied tonight. Defensively, we did a great job getting stops when we needed to. I'm just really proud of us and I'm looking forward to playing some more basketball with this group."

San Diego State led by five points in each of the first two overtimes, including the first extra session with 1:35 left and the second overtime with 1:00 left, but in both instances, UW clawed back to force another OT.

In the third extra period, Sheffey hit a pair of free throws to put the Aztecs up, 70-66, with 42 seconds left. Wyoming quickly cut the lead in half on an Emily Mellema lay-up just eight seconds later. After Jazlen Green missed a pair of free-throws and a Cowgirl timeout, Mellema missed a jumper and Villalobos grabbed the rebound before passing it to Sheffey, who was quickly fouled. With 12 seconds, Sheffey made both free throws. Mellema turned over with three seconds and SDSU ran out the clock after calling a timeout to seal the 72-68 victory.

Sheffey was 9-for-10 from the charity stripe and San Diego State made 16 of 19 attempts for the game.

The Aztecs forced 25 UW turnovers and outscored the home team on the scoreboard, 20-5, off turnovers.

Allyson Fertig had 17 points and 18 rebounds to lead Wyoming.

SDSU will find out its opponent and destination at the NCAA Tournament Selection Show at 5 p.m. PT Sunday on ESPN.