Boise State's Cassidy Blaine was the hero Tuesday afternoon hitting a three-pointer with 0:06 remaining to lift the No. 9 seeded Broncos to a 59-56 win over No 8 seed Hawaii and into Wednesday's quarterfinal action at the 2004 McCaffrey Western Athletic Conference Tournament.

The reward for Blaine and the Broncos win? A meeting with the league's No. 1 seed and No. 6 ranked Louisiana Tech (24-2) as the two teams will battle Wednesday at 2 p.m. CST at the Save Mart Center on the campus of Fresno State University.

Although the task looks daunting for coach Jen Warden and company who are 0-8 all-time against the Lady Techsters, including a 95-57 loss in Ruston and an 80-48 setback in Boise this season, the second-year head coach said her team relishes the opportunity.

"Our team rallies whenever we have the opportunity to play Louisiana Tech," said Warden, whose team improved to 9-19 on the season with the victory. "You look the best in the face; you go toe-to-toe with them. To be honest with you, we've played them better every single time we played. They bring something really special out of our team."

The quarterfinal match-up will not be a new one to the women's portion of the WAC Tournament as Louisiana Tech has knocked the Broncos out of the event each of the last two years, including a 70-53 win in 2002 and an 80-55 win last season.

Boise State will also be facing one of the hottest teams in the nation as the Lady Techsters enter the game with a 16-game winning streak, tied for third longest in the country behind only Chattanooga's 26-game streak and St. Francis's (PA) 18-game winning streak.

Louisiana Tech will not only be attempting to advance to Friday's semifinal round where they would play the winner of SMU and UTEP but the Lady Techsters are also looking to extend a streak of 23 straight wins in conference tournaments. The last time Tech lost a league tournament game was in the championship game of the 1995 Sun Belt Conference Tournament to Western Kentucky.

Although all of the streaks are impressive, Techster head coach Kurt Budke said his team is focused on one thing entering Wednesday's game.

"We know we have to win three more games - one game at a time - in order to get the best seeding possible in the NCAA Tournament," Budke said. "We also know this won't be easy. There are some tough teams in this league who have shown that they are capable of competing against us. You simply can't afford a bad night this time of the year."

Boise State will be facing a team in Louisiana Tech that placed four players on the 10-team All-WAC squad, including conference Player of the Year Amisha Carter who leads the league in scoring (17.5 ppg) and rebounding (10.2 rpg).

The Broncos boast the league's top three-point shooting attack (35 percent) led by Jodi Nakashima (42-98), Blaine (25-84), Lynette Grondin (24-64) and Cariann Ramirez (21-49).

The game can be heard on KXKZ-FM 107.5 and via the Internet at www.latechsports.com.