LAS VEGAS – Air Force waited and waited and waited for the buzzer that would catapult it into an unprecedented Mountain West championship game.

“That was the longest 10 seconds of my life,” said Milahnie Perry, who has turned into a full-fledged star at the Thomas & Mack Center.

It finally sounded before Boise State could hoist a last shot, allowing the Falcons to complete a 68-66 victory in the Mountain West tournament semifinals Monday night and become the highest seeded team in this event to advance this far.

No Air Force basketball team – men or women – has reached the finals of a conference tournament prior to this three-day run that has seen the ninth-seeded Falcons top No. 8 Wyoming, then No. 1 San Diego and now No. 5 Boise State all in nail-biting fashion.

Now, the team is 40 minutes away from what would be a most unlikely championship and automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament when they face No. 2 UNLV or No. 3 Colorado State at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“Gosh, we are just in disbelief,” coach Stacy McIntyre said. “What I’m most proud of is we had a great game plan. We executed that game plan and just stayed poised down the stretch.”

Perry scored 16 of her 27 points in the second half and matched the Mountain West tournament scoring record with 78 points over the past three days.

But aside from the star senior who keeps smashing records – the program’s all-time leading scorer also shattered her own mark for points in a season at Air Force (now at 558) – the Falcons did this without doing anything totally out of character.

The team wasn’t great at the line, going 11-of-17 and squandering chances to put away a game it led by six points with two minutes remaining. The Falcons shot just 3-of-15 in the second quarter, watching a nine-point advantage built with a strong first quarter turn into a deficit. And foul trouble was a constant worry, with Jayda McNabb and Emily Adams both picking up three in the first half and Adams fouling out with 3:28 remaining.

But Air Force (16-17), playing with the confidence of experienced upperclassmen bolstered by the happenings this week in Vegas, didn’t allow any of its lulls to turn into game-changing opportunities for Boise State.

“That was the message in every timeout, ‘Okay, this is a game of runs,’” McIntyre said. “They’re going to make a run. We’re going to make a run. We just had to stay solid and, again, as we talked about earlier, just stick to that game plan and just keep everybody calm.

“I think just having that leadership out on the floor and having Milahnie Perry pull the team … that leader on the floor made all the difference.”

Keelie O’Hollaren hit 4-of-8 3-pointers, with three coming at massive moments in the second half. Her first two shots put the Falcons in front during a third quarter that saw seven ties and six lead changes. Her final 3-pointer on the first possession of the fourth quarter drew the game even at 50-50.

O’Hollaren is among the four most prolific 3-point shooters in Air Force history, but she’s also frustratingly streaky. Her 0-for-6 showing from 3-point range Saturday vs. Wyoming was her fourth game this season with at least five 3-point attempts and no makes. She was 6-of-32 from 3 over the seven games leading into this.

O’Hollaren finished with 15 points.

“She’s an exceptional shooter,” Perry said. “I feel like as a shooter, that comes with it, having just low points where it doesn’t seem like anything is hitting, but that doesn’t lower our confidence in her. I know that she’s a good shooter, and she showed that.”

Boise State (25-9) had ranked among the top 3-point shooting teams in the nation and in two victories over Air Force had gone 16-of-33 from long range.

On Monday the Broncos were just 1-of-3 from behind the arc. The Falcons made the tradeoff of giving up 46 points in the paint, but they didn’t allow Boise State to go to its strength.

“We have no one to blame but ourselves,” Boise State coach Gordy Presnell said. “But a lot of that is because of Air Force, their physicality, their pressure. They took it out of us early, and then I thought we hung in there, and we had a chance to really make a move, and we didn’t.”

The Final 26 seconds saw the Falcons attempt eight free throws, making five. That allowed Boise State to stay within a possession. With 10 seconds remaining Perry missed the second of two free throws with 10 seconds remaining and the Broncos charged down the court.

Dani Bayes drove into the lane but left a layup short. Libby Hutton, who scored 25 points for the Broncos, grabbed the rebound but opted to kick it out to Mya Hansen. Hansen dribbled and by the time she pulled up the buzzer was sounding.

“We had numerous opportunities, and we didn’t execute down the stretch,” Presnell said. “That’s a tribute to their physicality, and when I say physicality I don’t mean that like negatively. I mean, like, they get in you.”

The Falcons kept defending until the buzzer signaled the end. For this day. With Tuesday still to come.

“I’m glad I finally heard it,” Perry said. “I was waiting for it, waiting for it, and then when I heard it… fireworks.”