LAS VEGAS -- They press and trap and poke at every ball, hands everywhere.

That is what Fresno State has done all season, and twice before Thursday's quarterfinal against Boise State at the Mountain West Conference tournament they turned games into 40-minute train wrecks for the Broncos.

No surprise, then, that the Bulldogs did it again in a 72-55 win at the Thomas & Mack Center, easily advancing to a semifinal today against third-seeded Wyoming, a 60-58 winner over sixth-seeded Colorado State.

The Bulldogs had a 20-point lead not even 12 minutes in while making life miserable for the Broncos, who had difficulty dealing with the Bulldogs' pressure and, really, doing some rather simple things with the ball.

Mostly dribbling and passing, those sorts of things.

The Bulldogs forced 17 turnovers and had 13 steals in the first half. Boise State missed its first 13 shots and finished the half 8 for 25 from the field.

The first seven possessions for the Broncos: six turnovers and a missed layup.

"We wanted to play pretty fast tonight to get them up and down with us," guard Ki-Ki Moore said. "I think they got tired pretty fast."

Fresno State (22-8) scored 17 points off those first-half turnovers, and 26 off a record 29 turnovers for the game. And it had no trouble getting to the basket against the Broncos, who previously absorbed double-digits losses to the Bulldogs -- by 13 at the Save Mart Center and 18 in Boise during the regular season.

The Bulldogs' biggest lead of 32-6 came with 5:34 to play in the first half.

"Obviously, it's a good confidence booster for our team," forward Rosie Moult said. "Our main objective today was to start out hard, be aggressive with our press."

Moore scored 17 points and had four of the steals.

Moult finished with 15 and also had four steals. Taylor Thompson had six steals, the most in a Mountain West women's quarterfinal and tied for second in any MWC women's tourney game. Alex Sheedy scored 13 points.

Not that the Bulldogs were without warts, including 36.4% shooting. But with all of the extra possessions, they were never in danger. They took a tournament-record 77 shots, making 28.

The only suspense of a matchup of the No. 2 and 7 seeds was whether the Bulldogs would set the tournament record for steals (UNLV had 17 against Utah in 2002). And, whether Boise State would set the turnover mark (Air Force had 28 against Texas Christian in 2008).

"We knew with the matchup they would press us and, obviously, we're struggling without a point guard," Boise State coach Gordy Presnell said. "Had a hard time with that -- we turned it over. The room shrunk on us, after we turned it over, probably a little insecure in the first 10 minutes."

Pebley kept the press on at the start of the second half, but ratcheted down the pressure considerably. Still, the teams completed their record runs.

Fresno State tied the steals mark with 7:14 to play when Moult poked away an errant entry pass. Boise State (11-19) set the turnover record with 1:37 to go on a bad pass.

"I've seen us play consistent defense like that, I've also seen us not play great defense," Pebley said. "It's really, I think, what these young women commit themselves to. We've got a lot of different defensive schemes, different attacks, and it doesn't matter what we do, it's about them executing and they do a great job of it, and we're going to need to play consistently great defense in this next game."

Today's game

No. 2 Fresno State (22-8) vs. No. 3 Wyoming (24-6) at 2:30 p.m.