Fresno State suffers first Mountain West women’s basketball loss. What it means for postseason

The Fresno State women’s basketball team won’t go undefeated this season in the Mountain West Conference.

Air Force, of all teams, took care of that Wednesday night.

The Falcons blitzed the Bulldogs 88-65, Fresno State’s first MW loss after starting 15-0.

The Bulldogs led 7-1 on Wytalla Motta’s 3-point play just 1:22 in. And they had made three of their first four shots..

Then Air Force finished the first quarter on a 17-4 run, made it 41-27 at halftime and finished with its second straight win over a top-tier MW team, having beaten third-place San Jose State last week.

Fresno State clinched the Mountain West regular-season championship last week, so the loss doesn’t affect their top seed in the conference tournament next month.

But now 22-5, the Bulldogs’ creep up the NCAA RPI standings to No. 59 is certainly done, meaning any hope of making the NCAA Tournament as an at-large team is done, too.

The Bulldogs were done in by poor 3-point shooting (4 of 21), rebounding (Air Force had a 40-25 edge) and 16 turnovers.

Freshman Haley Cavinder played all 40 minutes and scored 19 points. Twin sister Hanna Cavinder scored 15 and Aly Gamez 13, but Maddi Utti was held to two points on 0-of-4 shooting in just 20 minutes (she did have nine rebounds).

Fresno State is home for Senior Day on Saturday, a 2 p..m. game against Nevada at the Save Mart Center. The Bulldogs finish the regular season Feb. 27 at Wyoming.