Daily Skiff

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Halie Sawyer scored a career-high 24 points and tied her career best with 15 rebounds as fourth-seeded Utah upset No. 1 seed TCU 69-57 in the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference tournament Friday.

Kalee Whipple added 14 points and eight rebounds and Iwalani Rodrigues scored 13 points for Utah (22-10), the defending tournament champion.

The Utes, who will be playing for their fourth Mountain West tournament title since 2000, will face San Diego State on Saturday.

TK LaFleur led TCU (22-8) with 15 points.

After leading 27-22 at halftime, Utah put the game away with an 18-0 run to start the second half.

The Utes avenged a regular-season sweep by the Horned Frogs, including a 105-96 decision in four overtimes Feb. 10 in Salt Lake City. Since that loss, Utah won eight of nine.

Sawyer, a 6-foot-1 forward, also had three blocks for Utah, which won the conference tournament in 2009, 2006 and 2000.

Eboni Mangum had 13 points and Helena Sverrisdottir 12 for TCU, which was outrebounded 41-24 and shot 29.3 percent from the field. The Horned Frogs, who were ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 earlier this season, must now wait to see if they earn an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament. TCU has advanced to the NCAAs in eight of the last nine seasons and as of Monday had an RPI of 39.

After the score was tied at eight early, the Utes went on an 11-3 run and never trailed again. TCU went scoreless for first 6:52 of the second half, and Utah built its largest lead at 50-26 with 11:12 to play.

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