LAS VEGAS – The shooting simply couldn’t keep pace with the aspirations.

Ninth-seeded Air Force went cold in the final half after four scorching days in the desert, and No. 3 Colorado State prevailed 56-42 to grab a Mountain West women’s tournament title on its way out of the conference.

“We picked a bad day to have a bad shooting day,” Air Force coach Stacy McIntyre said.

The Rams earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

Air Force made just 6-of-34 shots in the second half as its unprecedented run ended. The Falcons had knocked off Wyoming, top-seeded San Diego State and Boise State to get to the program’s first final. No Air Force team, men’s or women’s, had ever won two games in a conference tournament and only the 2021-22 women had ever traveled as far as the semifinals.

But the first title remained elusive, though the game was tied at halftime and as late as the 7:33 mark in the third quarter when Colorado State began a 6-0 run. Air Force answered, as it has throughout this tournament, but it closed only to within two points.

The Rams pulled away in the fourth as Air Force’s shooting touch abandoned it.

“The shots just weren’t falling,” Air Force’s Milahnie Perry said. “It just wasn’t going our way. It did have a point to where, you know, the four games in four days did have a factor in it, but ultimately, the shots weren’t falling for us.”

Perry, the tournament MVP, led the Falcons with 14 points. It expanded her conference-tournament record to 92 points – the most in any women’s or men’s conference tournament nationally this season.

Fellow senior Emily Adams added 12 points and also earned her way onto the All-Tournament Team.

Alexis Cortez contributed 11 points and nine rebounds for the Falcons.

Colorado State (27-7), which will join the Pac-12 this summer, beat Grand Canyon at the buzzer on a Madelyn Bragg shot Sunday, then outlasted three-time defending tournament champion UNLV on Monday night.

It was the Rams’ third conference championship.

“Air Force makes it very difficult to score,” Colorado State coach Ryun Williams said. “They had an incredible tournament.”

Brooke Carlson led CSU with 17 points on Tuesday night at the Thomas & Mack Center. Bragg added 15. Both were named to the All-Tournament team, joining the pair of Falcons and Boise State’s Libby Hutton.

“This is a great day to be a CSU Ram,” Williams said. “This is what Ram pride is all about. It’s grit, it’s toughness, it’s dirty work. That’s how we had to win this championship. This goes down as one of the all-time greatest teams in Colorado State history.”

The Rams played without Mountain West Newcomer of the Year Lexus Bargesser, who was injured in Monday’s semifinal.

Air Force (16-18) will now await potential selection into a postseason event. Teams generally must have a winning record to qualify, but a petition for an exemption has already been filed.

“Even though we didn’t win, I still feel like we are the best team in the conference,” Perry said. “Nothing is ever going to change my mind about that.

“Respectfully, a lot of teams or a lot of players in this conference can’t do what we do each and every day. We work very hard, not just athletically, but in the classroom and militarily. I’m just very proud of us in how much work we put in to make history like this. It’s amazing.”