LAS VEGAS – The recipe remained the same all season for the Colorado State Rams women’s basketball team: stifling defense and efficient offense stirred by senior leadership.
It was only appropriate that the Mountain West’s top scoring and field goal percentage defense blanketed the unlikely ninth-seeded finalists Air Force, as the third-seed Rams punched their ticket to the Big Dance with a 56-42 win on Tuesday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.
"These ladies did it the way we do it. We guard," said Colorado State head coach Ryun Williams. "It wasn't easy offensively, there was just not a lot of flow. Couldn't get in sync, but we never got out of whack or out of sync with our toughness and how we guarded, and that was the key to today's victory."
Colorado State (27-7) held the gritty, gutty Falcons (16-18) to just 17.6% shooting in the second half and a season scoring low, while getting 17 points from sophomore guard Brooke Carlson and 15 points from senior forward Madelyn Bragg, who both earned all tournament selections.
The decisive run, a 9-0 burst began with just over six minutes remaining. Bragg scored 5 points to help set the Rams inside-outside attack that got scores by Carlson and sophomore guard Kloe Froebe. Air Force was never able to come closer than 7 points the rest of the way, as CSU made 14 of 18 free throws in the final frame and 11 of 14 in the last two minutes to salt the result.
"We're a defensive team, and we knew that tied up at half that we were going to have to come out with a better effort on defense, because a lot of their points I feel like in the first half were from our defensive errors and we knew that this was a kind of do-or-die situation," Bragg said. "I am really proud of my teammates for locking it in in the second half and taking away their second-chance opportunities as well."
Mountain West Newcomer of the Year senior guard Lexus Bargesser did not dress for the game and wore a brace on her left leg. The injury appeared to happen after planting and attempting to drive baseline around three minutes into the second quarter of the Rams’ semifinal win over UNLV.
Senior guard Marta Leimane drew into the starting lineup in place of Bargesser and continued the momentum from a 16 point performance in the semifinals, and was one of two Rams (Carlson was the other) to play all 40 minutes.
Colorado State earned their first NCAA Tournament berth since 2016 and the program’s seventh all-time.
Jamie Sanchez
Air Force guard Milahine Perry (2) drives up toward the basket against Colorado State guard Marta Leimane (14) on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Senior guard Milahnie Perry closed her tournament for the ages with 14 points, finishing with 92 points to set a new single-tournament record while earning Most Valuable Player honors.
"I'm very thankful for it, and I'm very blessed. I thank my teammates for helping me get to that and my coaches for all their support as well," Perry said. "Respectfully, a lot of teams or a lot of players in this conference can't do what we do each and every day. We work very hard, not just athletically, but in the classroom and militarily.
"I'm just very proud of us in how much work we put in to make history like this. It's amazing."
Fellow senior forward Emily Adams had 12 points and six rebounds to also earn a spot on the all-tournament team, while junior guard Alexis Cortez added 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
It was the first time that the Falcons reached the Mountain West tournament championship game, in addition to being the first time that any Air Force basketball team won multiple games at the Mountain West Championships.
"One of the things I shared in the locker room was there aren't many teams that make it to the conference championship, but a locker room that has an All-Conference player, a player like Milahnie Perry that can be tournament MVP on a team that fell short, a Defensive Player of the Year (Jayda McNabb) and a freshman (Bhret Clay) on an all-freshman team. There's a lot to be said for that," said Air Force head coach Stacy McIntyre.
Yet it was the defending by Leimane that kept Perry off balance for most of the game, as Air Force's all-time leading scorer went just 6-for-18 (33.3%) from the field after making 31 of 61 (50.8%) in the first three games of the tournament.
"(Perry) has a really great pull-up, and she has that little cross to her pull-up, and I think I kind of studied that before and just locked in on D. It was a good day, it was a good day for defense," Leimane said.
The third quarter was a defensive struggle, with both teams managing just three field goals apiece. CSU took control by dashing off a 6-0 stretch while Air Force was held scoreless over 5:06 and missed eight in a row from the field. The Falcons attempted eight more shots in the quarter, but got scores from Adams and Perry in the final 3:28 to pull within 34-32.
Jamie Sanchez
Colorado State Rams forward Madelyn Bragg (0) attempts a layup against Air Force on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.
Both teams had big pushes in the opening half, with Colorado State getting the first big run of the game by dashing off a 9-0 stretch following junior guard McNabb’s game-opening score. it was part of a spell where CSU made seven consecutive shots and opened a 9-point lead just over six minutes into the game, with Leimane scoring the first of six CSU layups in the opening 10 minutes.
All five of the Rams starters scored in the first quarter, with senior guard Hannah Ronsiek netting 5 points and hitting the only CSU triple of the first half. Then the Falcons defense swung the tide late as Adams scored her 8th point of the quarter, then Perry scored the final two buckets to make it 17-14 Rams.
The momentum stayed wearing blue, as Air Force made it an 11-0 run over 6:02 across the quarters as Cortez hit a paint jumper and then knocked down the first Falcon triple at the 6:45 mark of the second. CSU responded by scoring the next 5 points with Bragg scoring the first of her two buckets in the quarter.
Cortez scored 9 of the Falcons’ 12 points in the quarter, with a triple from Perry the only other basket as the teams went to halftime tied at 26-26.
Air Force became the fifth team to reach the Mountain West tournament final after needing to play a first round game since 2014. Only one team, Wyoming as a seven seed in 2021, has won the championship.
The win was the Rams' third of the year over the Falcons, completing a full campaign sweep of CSU's major rivals after the Green and Gold took both games against Wyoming during the regular season.
"I'm just so happy for those kids. To see Hannah Ronsiek smile like that, to see (Leimane), you know, Jadyn (Fife), those kids that have been here for four years, I mean, that is — just to see the joy on their face. That means a lot to a coach," Williams said.
"It was not easy. I was happy for those young ladies. They work. Our team really, really works. They deserve this. They've earned it, and hard work paid off."
Colorado State will find their seeding fate for the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, March 15. The Rams entered the day as the top-ranked Mountain West team in the NET at 70 and ranked second in the conference in Wins-Above-Bubble at 82.
This story was updated at 10:54 p.m.
