The No. 3 Colorado State Rams lost their rock in the semifinal, but they’re skipping onto the NCAA Tournament anyway.
Points came at a premium on Tuesday night in the 2026 Credit Union 1 Mountain West Women’s Basketball Championship final, but CSU pulled away from the competition’s darling, No. 9 Air Force, 56-42, to win its first tournament title since 2016.
“For some of us we’ve been here four years, and I think we haven’t done that job these past three years. We kind of talked about it too: This is it. This is our last chance to do this together and just bring our whole heart in it,” senior guard Marta Leimane said. “I think just the emotions that we shared together and all the memories, it’s been really awesome, and I think that’s exactly what led us to this victory.”
With Lexus Bargesser out with a leg injury she suffered in the semifinal, Leimane put the team on her shoulders in her place offensively against UNLV. Tuesday night, she was the primary defender on Milahnie Perry for most of the game.
That’s been a tough ask for anyone and everyone this tournament — look no further than an MW-record 92 points in four games this tournament. Call it fatigue or call it clamps, but Leimane and CSU held the tournament MVP to just 14 points on 18 shots.
“There was no question (on who to put on Perry). You need length, you need experience on Perry — she is unbelievable,” Rams coach Ryun Williams. “You know, when Lexus is out of the game, especially at Moby. She did a great job on her, and that’s when we kind of got some separation two weeks ago.
“We had all the confidence in the world in Marty, but she was always fresh when she guarded Perry a couple of weeks ago. (Tonight) there were a couple of times I looked at Marty, she couldn’t even see straight she was so tired. We played her 40 minutes. She was the one kid that we felt could really kind of bother, get to the pull-up. Marty is a very instinctive, smart defender. That’s what you need to have on Perry.”
With just five minutes to go, the combined score was just 74. From there, CSU went on a 9-0 run, the largest of the night, powered by a pair of Madelyn Bragg layups that were the result of a back-and-forth battle with Emily Adams.
She finished with 15 points, five rebounds and a steal. To keep the distance with less than two minutes to go, Brooke Carlson, who finished with 17 points and four rebounds, hit six clutch free throws.
But what makes this Rams team special is the array of players who can find a way.
“Everybody kind of had their moment there down the stretch. Brooke was really good. She kind of did the Nash dribble and just surveyed, surveyed, until she got to a spot where she could score it,” Williams said. “It’s one thing to score, but now you’ve got to go get some stops. We strung a lot of those together in that second half. That was a big-time defensive performance in the second half.”
