Nevada women in finals for first time

RENO " One win away from the Big Dance.

Nevada, behind a 30-point night from senior guard Dellena Criner, outscored Louisiana Tech 9-3 in the final 96 seconds of overtime en route to a 91-88 win in the Western Athletic Conference semifinals Friday afternoon at Lawlor Events Center.

The win sends Nevada (18-13) into the WAC Tournament finals for the first time in school history. Nevada will oppose top-seeded Fresno State (1 p.m. today), a team it lost to twice during the regular season. Nevada was eliminated in the semifinals in both 2006 and 2007.

"It's very exciting," Criner said. "It's also something we want to continue to do. I think everybody feels that way. Spring break is pretty much out of the question right now, so we are focusing on the championship game.

"The first thing I thought about going into overtime was the Syracuse-UConn game. It was discouraging at the beginning. I noticed when we fouled, we got our heads down and I told the team we got this."

Shanavia Dowdell and Adrienne Johnson scored in the first minute of overtime to give the Lady Techsters an 81-77 lead with 3 minutes, 58 seconds left in overtime.

Trailing 83-79 with 2:32 left, went on a 10-2 run to take an 89-85 lead with 18 seconds remaining, as a partisan crowd of 1,518 roared its approval.

Criner started the surge with a 3-pointer to make it 83-82. Jasmine Bendolph countered for Tech to get the lead back to three, 85-82. Cherlanda Franklin (16 points) hit a jump shot off a feed from Criner, and after Bendolph misfired on a drive to the basket, Johnna Ward (12 points), off a pass from Criner, drained her only 3-pointer of the game to give Nevada an 87-85 lead.

Tech missed three shots at the other end, and after the third miss there was a jump ball situation with the possession arrow favoring Tech. Tarkeshia Wysinger missed, and a scramble for the rebound resulted in another held ball situation, and this time the possession arrow favored Nevada.

Tech was forced to foul, and Ward nailed two free throws to make it 89-85. Whitney Jones hit a big 3-pointer from the right side with 9.2 left, but Criner culminated a great night with two pressure free throws with 7.1 left.

Nevada coach Jane Albright praised the play of Criner.

"I really can't say anything about Dellena," Albright said. "She just willed some of those shots in. I told her the biggest three of her career was when we were down by four."