JOURNEY TO THE WAC TOURNEY

(All times Mountain, until I escape, or further notice.)

... still Wednesday

Women's first round

2:30 p.m. game: No. 1 Fresno State (14-2 WAC, 19-10 overall) vs. No. 9 San Jose State (1-15, 2-27)
[Edit] Final score: Fresno State 87, San Jose State 76

LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- OK, we've got some catching up to do here. Games have gotten away from us, and by "us," I mean you. I am at no fault, as far as I'm concerned. Just ask me.

Even as I type this, we are two games past the Fresno State game. But alas, I had to write a column, which you can read in Thursday's Fresno Bee, or online, for you no-good free-loaders. It's about Fresno State point guard Emma Andrews, the Australian native, who had a career-high 16 points in a 87-76 win. Yes, Fresno State won. Moving on to the second round. All wins at this point in the season are big, but in reality, San Jose State is pretty awful. Its won two games all year, as you can see above. The governor of New York is having a better year than that.

[Edit] Thursday's column about point guard Emma Andrews.

On the other side, San Jose State is probably the best two-win team in America. How's that for glass half-full? The blog believes they've only been beaten by more than 20 points a few times this season, and 10 of their losses were single-digit. OK, OK, they're bad. Fresno State will have to play better tomorrow against Louisiana Tech.

Freshman Jaleesa Ross had a great game, 23 points. Senior Tierre Wilson had her usual good outing, 15 points on not-nearly-enough shots. She also took a hard fall at the end of the first half -- splat! -- on her right hip and elbow. It sounded like a pillow case full of rocks hitting the floor. She was down long enough to make her coaches nervous, but played in the second half and afterward said she was going to be fine, even guaranteed she'd play Friday. I'm sure she's right, but it was a full-fledged crash. It'll be sore tomorrow. (Tomorrow, in fact, I am promising to get a Tierre Wilson elbow/hip update, including a pain rating for each body part, on a 1-to-10 scale. One, being the pain you'd feel if your girlfriend bought you a birthday card instead of making one out of construction paper, 10 being if she sawed off your index finger with a pocket knife and eye-gouged you with it. Guessing Tierre Wilson's elbow bruise falls somewhere between that.)

The women now play the No. 5 seed Louisiana Tech Friday at noon. (Yes, Mountain time. That's 11 a.m. back in California, so take an early lunch and listen to the radio. Or just keep loggin in here, to catch my feverish blog updates.) Fresno State is two wins from absolutely wrecking my Vegas trip next weekend, but good for them. It's about time this program finally made an NCAA Tournament. Not that I'm trying to jinx it. Let me repeat. Fresno State is going to win. I swear. It's a guarantee. And in no way am I trying to jinx it, in some desperate attempt to salvage an annual, pre-planned, hanging-out-with-old-buddies trip to Vegas for the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

6 p.m. game: No. 3 New Mexico State vs. No. 6 Hawaii
[Edit] Final score: New Mexico State 55, Hawaii 40

Now I'm just getting lazy. You don't even get records for NMSU or Hawaii. In fact, I'm not even sure what the score was. I was typing. New Mexico State won. I know that. At one point I looked up from press row, it was almost halftime and Hawaii had six points. No lie. The Bows are not good. Watching that game could have been community service for aggravated battery and all lesser charges not involving a weapon.

Oh, look, I just found a box score. Final score: New Mexico State 55, Hawaii 40. Forty points will not even beat Princeton. Johnny Cochrane's defense couldn't overcome that sort of offense. It's late. My metaphors are getting stupider than usual.

8:30 p.m.: No. 2 Boise State vs. No. 7 Utah State
[Edit] Final score: Boise State 61, Utah State 47

Utah State put up a good fight, but Boise State's pretty darn good. Boise State won 61-47. One of the sports information people from Boise just said that was the Broncos 15th straight win. Jessica Thompson is really, really good. She had 17 points, even with four fouls for a lot of the second half. If this blog had to be honest, as you know it is, Fresno State would be an underdog against Boise State if it makes it that far. They just have a lot of scorers and much better interior defense. OK, the blog is tired. See you tomorrow for the men.