All good things must come to an end. That certainly proved to be the case for the Nevada women’s basketball team Saturday afternoon in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament championship game.

The third-seeded Wolf Pack fell to top-seeded Fresno State, 56-49. The win clinched the conference’s lone bid into the upcoming NCAA Tournament for Fresno State.

A key stat proved to be the Bulldogs’ dominance on the glass. Fresno State pulled down 26 offensive rebounds and grabbed an overall rebounding advantage of 51-34.

“We got beat at our own game, which is rebounding,” Nevada coach Jane Albright said. “That’ll haunt me for awhile … You don’t want a championship game to come down to your inability to rebound.”

Fresno State (25-8, 12-4 WAC) came into the game knowing it would have to rebound to contain Nevada.

“We sat here and watched the Nevada-LA Tech (semifinal) game and they just rebounded like crazy.” Fresno State coach Adrian Wiggins said. “We know. We understand, how important rebounding is. Our players wanted to make sure that didn’t happen to us. We flipped it. We did a great job.”

Trailing 31-20 at halftime, Nevada (18-15, 10-6 WAC) came out on fire in the opening minutes of the second half thanks to a 13-2 run. The burst was capped by a Dellena Criner layup, pulling the Pack within one, 34-33. A baseline jumper and two free throws by Shavon Moore gave Nevada its first lead of the night, 37-36, with 14 minutes left.

“Wow, what a great situation,” Wiggins said. “They (Nevada) played so well. They didn’t quit.”

Fresno State’s LaShay Fears hit a shot to take the one-point advantage from Nevada. The squads battled back and forth before the host school got some help from reserve Megan Cherry. She dropped in a layup and two free throws for a 41-40 Nevada lead with 10:51 left.

Joh-Teena Filipe capitalized on a Nevada turnover to take back a one-point lead for Fresno State. The Wolf Pack didn’t score a point for the next five minutes, allowing FSU to take a 47-41 lead with 6:34 left.

Nevada then scored six straight points to tie things at 47. A key Bulldogs three-point basket from Jaleesa Ross gave the California school a 52-47 lead. That effectively denied Nevada a shot at a comeback, and propelled Fresno State to the WAC Tournament championship.

Ross won the MVP award for the WAC tournament. Filipe made the WAC tourney’s first team. Ross had 22 points in the win over Nevada and Filipe added 12.

Nevada players Criner and Shavon Moore also were given first-team all-tourney honors. Moore led the Wolf Pack with 10 points. Criner was held to nine on 4-of-11 shooting. For the game, Nevada shot 38.5 percent from the field and just 18.2 percent from beyond the arc.

“These seniors, the journey that they had here was unbelievable,” Albright said. “This year was a great journey. It was a lot bigger than any championship will ever be.”

In the first half, Fresno State got an early edge on Nevada, going up 14-8. Still, Nevada pulled within two, 20-18, with 6:19 showing on the first-half clock. However, Fresno struck up an 11-2 run to close out the first half and take the 11-point lead into halftime.