No. 5 Boise State women’s basketball will play against No. 4 New Mexico in the quarterfinals of the 2026 Credit Union 1 Mountain West Women’s Basketball Championship. The matchup is set for March 8 at 3:30 p.m. MT in Las Vegas, and fans can watch on the Mountain West Network or listen on 670 KBOI AM.
The winner of this game will move on to face either No. 1 San Diego State or No. 9 Air Force in the semifinals scheduled for March 9 at 6 p.m. MT.
Boise State enters the tournament with several notable achievements this season. The Broncos have four players—Natalie Pasco, Tatum Thompson, Dani Bayes, and Mya Hansen—who have each scored over 1,000 career points at Boise State. Pasco leads with 1,557 points.
New Mexico comes into the game with a strong record of 22-9 overall and a conference mark of 14-6. The Lobos are currently on a five-game winning streak and lead the conference in bench scoring, rebound margin, offensive rebounds per game, and total rebounds per game. Historically, Boise State leads the series against New Mexico by an 18-12 margin and has won two out of three meetings in Mountain West Tournament play.
Head coach Gordy Presnell has matched the conference record for most Mountain West tournament wins with his counterpart from New Mexico, Don Flanagan; both have achieved 22 victories.
Boise State’s starting lineup—Bayes, Hansen, Libby Hutton, Pasco, and Thompson—have all scored over 200 points this season. The team was also first in the conference to have five players surpass both the 100-point and the 150-point marks.
This year marks Presnell’s second time leading Boise State to at least 14 conference wins since joining the Mountain West Conference; their previous high was in the 2018-19 season with nineteen wins.
The Broncos also notched their fifth season overall—and third under Presnell—with at least twenty-four wins.
In terms of third-quarter performance, Boise State has outscored its opponents by more than one hundred points over the course of this season’s third quarters (626-502). The team holds an impressive record when outrebounding opponents: eighteen wins to one loss under those circumstances.
Scoring leadership has rotated among players throughout thirty-two games: Tatum Thompson led eight times as top scorer, followed by Pasco (six), Bayes (four), Hutton (four), and Hansen (one).
Presnell ranks eighteenth all-time among NCAA Division I women’s basketball coaches with seven hundred ninety-three victories and is fourth among active head coaches nationally.
From beyond the arc, Boise State is shooting thirty-eight percent for three-pointers this season—the best mark in their conference and fourth nationally behind UConn. Individually, Natalie Pasco leads both her team and league with seventy-seven made three-pointers this year while hitting forty-four percent from long range—a figure that places her thirteenth nationwide.
Tatum Thompson tops individual field goal percentage rankings within the conference at nearly forty-eight percent efficiency. Meanwhile Mya Hansen leads all Mountain West players in assists per game as well as total assists; collectively Boise State averages sixteen assists per contest to lead its league peers.
Offensively overall they average just over seventy points per game—second-highest in their league—and Dani Bayes recently posted a single-game three-point shooting performance that ties for second-best ever within program history after making seven-of-nine attempts versus UC Davis last November.
At home this year inside ExtraMile Arena they earned fifteen victories—the most since two thousand eight—and recently secured their sixth road win for only second time since joining MW play.
Their nine-game conference win streak ended February eleventh against Fresno State but marked a new high since becoming part of Mountain West competition more than a decade ago; it excluded any postseason games according to school records.
Several individual milestones were reached during regular season action: both Bayes and Thompson surpassed one thousand career points versus Grand Canyon January third—with Thompson also eclipsing five hundred rebounds same day—and Hansen hit her own thousandth point milestone playing New Mexico last month.
Twelve different Broncos contributed scoring during one victory against Wyoming January fourteenth—the highest number of unique scorers in any single outing so far this year—and that same game saw bench production reach thirty-seven points.
Boise State opened current campaign unbeaten through first seven home games for third consecutive year while achieving ten straight home wins between late February last year through December thirty-first.
Additionally they have now won twenty-two consecutive nonconference contests inside ExtraMile Arena—a run ranking fourteenth longest nationwide.
Preseason recognition included Tatum Thompson being named preseason player-of-the-year by league media; she was joined by Natalie Pasco on all-conference list ahead of start.
Games can be tracked live via BroncoSports.com or watched on television through Mountain West Network broadcasts; radio coverage continues courtesy Garrett Jones calling action on KBOI AM station.
