2008 Woodie Awards
Women's hoops clinches piece of WAC crown
KYE JOHNSON
Assistant Sports Editor
Issue date: 3/5/07 Section: Sports
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Boise State clinched a share of the Western Athletic Conference regular season title following its 66-56 victory over Hawaii. Louisiana Tech also won a share of the title.
“It’s unbelievable that we can finally say that we’re WAC champs,” BSU guard Nadia Begay said. “It’s an awesome feeling, it’s unexplainable.”
“It’s a great feeling,” Jackie Thompson said. “The greatest feeling in the world right now. It was senior night, we came in and beat them. It’s a great feeling.”
The Broncos got out to an early 8-5 lead, but were really unable to pull away or make any big runs in the first half.
Despite Hawaii shooting only 29 percent from the floor in the first half, BSU went into the break only leading by nine.
The Bronco offensive attack was led by Begay, who nailed three big three-pointers in the first half to give her a game-high nine points heading into halftime.
Also making a big impact for BSU was freshman center Ja’Lara Walker. Walker had a very productive first half, despite her limited floor action.
“She had five boards in five minutes in the first half,” Head Coach Gordy Presnell said. “She’s really improved, and she has kind of bought in. So I’m really excited about our future with her.”
To go along with her five rebounds, she had a couple emphatic blocked shots.
Starting center and local senior Michelle Hessing had a sub-par first half, picking up more fouls than points before halftime. But Presnell was going to make sure the second half was different.
“We tried to get her established right off the bat in the second half,” Presnell said. “And it got her going a little bit.”
Hessing scored 13 second-half points and helped the Broncos pull away.
“He didn’t give me a choice,” Hessing said about being more productive in the second half. “The coaches and the players had enough confidence to where they just kept feeding it to me inside.”
Boise State had three players score in double figures on the night.
Sophomores Tasha Harris and Rebecca Kepilino both went in double-figures along with Hessing to lead the way.
The Rainbow Wahine scored seven unanswered points to cut the lead to seven, but that was as close as they got.
The Broncos pulled away to a 10-point victory to clinch a share of the WAC title.
“It feels great and I’m proud of our kids,” Presnell said.
“We came in and we knew we had to play together,” Begay said. “We knew we couldn’t come out flat, but the main thing was to play together. We can’t go off into our own little world and try to do things ourselves, because we can’t win this thing by ourselves. If we carry that over to the WAC Tournament, I think we can be unstoppable.”
As the post game ceremonies drew to a close, the players cut down the nets in celebration of their season-long efforts.
“There is no way to describe it,” Thompson said. “It was one of those feelings where you don’t know whether to scream, cry or hug everyone.”
When asked if he feared his players would have a hard time focusing on the game given the huge circumstances surrounding it, Presnell replied, “It’s been a long time since we’ve won a championship around here, so it was all about tonight.”
Up next for Presnell and his crew is the WAC tournament.
Boise State clinched the No. 1 seed in the tournament and will have the luxury of sitting Tuesday night out and watching to see who they will face on Wednesday in the first round.
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