New Mexico 65, Colorado St. 41

3/14/2008 5:37 PM

By ARNIE STAPLETON
AP Sports Writer

LAS VEGAS (AP) -The Colorado State Rams will have to settle for their long, arduous season lasting 72 hours longer than anybody thought it could.

The Rams couldn't hang with the New Mexico Lobos, who stormed to their fifth Mountain West Conference title game appearance in six seasons with a 65-41 rout of the Rams in the semifinals Friday.

Dionne Marsh led the way with 19 points and Brandi Kimble added 13 for the Lobos, who have cut down the nets in all of their previous trips to the title game since 2003.

Colorado State (4-28) was coming off its unbelievable upset of 12th-ranked Utah - a 3-27 team beating a 27-3 team in one of the season's biggest surprises - and the Rams displayed the same daunting defense against the Lobos, but only sporadically.

New Mexico missed its first six shots but raced ahead 33-12 at the half and the Lobos' lead never dropped below double digits afterward.

Fourth-seeded New Mexico (19-12) will face sixth-seeded San Diego State on Saturday for the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Aztecs beat No. 2 seed TCU 69-67.

Sara Hunter's 15 points led the Rams, who went 0-16 in league play and brought a 2-27 mark into the tournament before upsetting host UNLV 68-49 in the play-in game Tuesday night and then shocking the top-seeded Utes 45-40 Wednesday night.