LAS VEGAS — Live to fight another day.

That’s what the season has come down to for Colorado State, and Wednesday the Rams bought themselves at least another 24 hours by beating 11th-seeded San Jose State 80-61 in the first round of the Mountain West Tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Sixth-seeded CSU (17-15) advances to face third-seeded Boise State in Thursday’s quarterfinals (9:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network). The Rams and Broncos split their two regular season meetings with both teams winning on their home court.

The Rams led the Spartans wire to wire, jumping out to a 17-4 lead midway through the first half as the Spartans started just 2-of-11 from the floor. San Jose State made it a six-point game later in the first half, but CSU responded with a 14-0 run to go up 20 before taking a 43-24 halftime lead.

“I knew we were sitting on a win just because of how in tune we were, how focused we were,” said CSU coach Larry Eustachy. “It’s a very unselfish team, but we were even more unselfish than normal.”

After shooting 33.3 percent in the first half (9-of-27) and 11.1 percent from the 3-point line (1-of-9), the Spartans improved in the second half (37.8 percent), but never enough to really threaten the Rams’ lead, which grew to 25 and was never fewer than 14.

Antwan Scott and Joe De Ciman each scored 17 points to lead the Rams, while John Gillon added 12 points and six assists. Emmanuel Omogbo had 10 points and 13 rebounds to help CSU to a 38-28 advantage on the glass.

Princeton Onwas and Frank Rogers each scored 11 points for San Jose State, which finished 3-of-21 from 3-point range in falling to 0-2 all time in the MW Tournament.

UNLV 108, Air Force 102, 3OT: Senior Ike Nwamu scored a career-high 38 points and Patrick McCaw added 27 with 14 rebounds to help the seventh-seeded Rebels beat the No. 10 seed Falcons and advance to the quarterfinals.

Jacob Van scored a career-high 37 for Air Force (14-17).

Utah State 88, Wyoming 70: Shane Rector scored 24, and Jalen Moore had 19 points, nine rebounds and five assists to help the ninth-seeded Aggies beat the No. 8-seeded Cowboys.

Jason McManamen led Wyoming with 23 points.

Other college basketball news from The Associated Press:

Holy Cross earns unlikely berth in NCAA Tournament

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Malachi Alexander scored 26 points and Holy Cross capped its stunning run to the Patriot League title and an NCAA Tournament berth with a 59-56 victory over Lehigh on Wednesday night.

The Crusaders are 14-19 and failed to win a conference road game during the regular season. Once the tournament started, the Crusaders won at Loyola, beat top-seeded Bucknell, won at Army, then knocked off second-seeded Lehigh (17-15).

Men’s highlights

A bloodied Marshall Plumlee’s tiebreaking three-point play with 1:14 left helped No. 19 Duke overcome a second-half deficit against North Carolina State for the third time in three meetings, and the reigning NCAA champion edged the Wolfpack 92-89 in the ACC Tournament’s second round.

In other second-round games, Cameron Johnson scored a career-high 24 points off the bench as Pittsburgh strengthened its NCAA résumé by fending off a late run to beat Syracuse 72-71.

Dejounte Murray scored 25 points, Marquese Chriss had 18 and 10 rebounds, and Washington routed Stanford 91-68 in the opening game of the Pac-12 Tournament. Washington (18-13) entered the Pac-12 Tournament hoping to boost its slim NCAA Tournament chances.

Marcus Georges-Hunt and Georgia Tech erased an 18-point second-half deficit to beat Clemson 88-85 in overtime in the second round of the ACC Tournament.

Freshman forward Dean Wade scored a career-high 20 points, Justin Edwards added 17 and Kansas State beat Oklahoma State 75-71 in the opening round of the Big 12 Tournament.

Shavon Shields scored 20 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to lead No. 11 seed Nebraska to an 89-72 victory over 14th-seeded Rutgers in a first-round game of the Big Ten Tournament.

Women’s highlights

LAS VEGAS — The Rams are one win from the NCAA Tournament.

Elin Gustavsson scored 18 points, and Colorado State routed New Mexico 60-42 on Wednesday to earn a berth in Friday’s Mountain West title game.

CSU (30-1) will face the winner of Wednesday’s late semifinal between Fresno State and UNLV, and a victory would give the rams Rams an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

Keyora Wharry scored 15 points and Jamie Patrick added 12 for the Rams, who extended their school record for consecutive wins to 27.

The Associated Press