March 11, 2008

LOGAN, Utah - Seventh-seeded Utah State (9-19, 5-11 WAC) will face co-conference champion and second-seeded Boise State (22-6, 14-2 WAC), also the defending tournament champion, in the Western Athletic Conference Womens' Basketball Tournament on Wednesday, March 12. The Aggies will tangle with the Broncos at 8:30 p.m. (MT) at Las Cruces, N.M., at the Pan American Center.

The tournament, hosted by New Mexico State, tips off Tuesday night with the play-in game between eighth-seeded Idaho and the nine seed San Jose State at 5 p.m. (MT). Action opens Wednesday with fourth-seeded Nevada meeting fifth-seeded Louisiana Tech at Noon (MT). The Idaho-San Jose State winner meets the the other co-champion and number one seed, Fresno State at 2:30 p.m. (MT). The evening session opens with sixth-seeded Hawai'i taking on host and third-seeded New Mexico State at 6 p.m. (MT), followed by the Aggie-Bronco battle.

The quarterfinal winners will advance to the semifinals with the Nevada-La Tech winner meeting the Fresno State-8/9 winner at Noon, which will be televised on CSTV, followed by the NMSU-UH winner taking on the Utah State-Boise State at 2:30 p.m. The semifinal winners advance to Saturday's championship game at 1 p.m., also on national television on CSTV.

USU's seventh-seed is the second-highest for the Aggies for a conference tournament under head coach Raegan Pebley while Utah State, which reinstated the program in 2003-04, has now won a conference postseason game since the AIAW Playoffs in 1977.

The Aggies proved the preseason poll correct in finishing where they were picked at seventh. USU concluded regular-season play with a 9-19 overall record in addition to to 5-11 record in WAC games. Utah State lost three-straight down the stretch, the latest to Idaho, 67-55, Saturday, spoiling USU's "Senior Night."

Boise State swept the two meetings with Utah State this season, losing 65-57 this past Thursday at Logan and dropping an 85-77 contest at Boise back on Jan. 17. The Broncos have won the last 10 meetings in a row and hold a 13-2 advantage over the Aggies in the all-time series.

Utah State is led by senior guard Taylor Richards with 10.1 ppg and 4.3 rpg.

The Broncos, the defending WAC Tournament champion, have won their last 14 games in a row. First-team all-WAC selection Tasha Harris leads BSU with 16.3 ppg and 4.1 rpg. Harris was also named to the conference's all-defensive team.

All Utah State women's basketball games can be heard on KLGN (1390 AM) in Logan with Evan Nyman calling the play-by-play. They can also be heard on the web through Yahoo! Sports, by going to the Utah State Athletics home page at www.UtahStateAggies.com and clicking on the Yahoo! Sports link in the right hand column.

Fans can follow all the WAC Tournament games by live stats through the USU web site at www.UtahStateAggies.com, and clicking on "live stats" on the basketball schedule page.

All of the WAC Tournament games are available through wac.tv. All-tournament passes will be available for $24.95 and all men's and women's games with the exception of the men's final on Saturday, March 15 will be available live on WAC.tv. The men's championship game will be available exclusively on ESPN2. Individual tournament games may be purchased for $7.95 each.