LAS VEGAS, Nev. — You can't fault the Utah women if they've got that bullet-proof feeling when they play New Mexico.

Utah extended its dominance of the Lobos with a 51-45 overtime win Wednesday night in the quarterfinal round of the Mountain West Conference Tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The loss ended the Lobos' season at 18-12, with three of the losses coming against the Utes.

It was the eighth-straight win by the Utes over the Lobos and once again, it came down to some big plays down the stretch — all of them by Utah.

The eight wins have come by an average of less than four points a game. Time and again Utah has found a way to win when defeat seemed imminent and this one was no different.

Senior Kalee Whipple, Utah's leading scorer, had a brutal night shooting, hitting just 1 of 12 shots. But the one that connected, a 3-pointer with 40 seconds left in overtime, gave the Utes a 47-43 and all but sealed the Lobos' fate.

Sophomore point guard Janita Badon ensured another tough loss by the Lobos with a breakaway layup with 26.5 seconds left, then hit two free throws with 15 seconds remaining.

New Mexico, which beat Colorado State 67-54 in Tuesday's first round, hit 8 of 11 3-pointers. But the Lobos again fell victims to some horrendous second half shooting. New Mexico hit just 5 of 22 shots over the final 20 minutes and consistently failed to finish on layups.

Still, the Lobos had plenty of chances. They led 38-35 with 4:09 left in regulation after back-to-back 3s by Sara Halasz and Eileen Weissman. But the Lobos failed to score the rest of the way and Badon's 3-pointer with 1:05 left tied it. Badon's 3 was set up by Whipple's offensive rebound moments earlier.

"There's such a history of those kinds of games with New Mexico," said Utah head coach Elaine Elliott. "You have to make the gutty, ugly plays. The obviously example is Whipple. She struggles, and what does she do? She has a career high (16) rebounding night. You find other ways. In the end, a play or two for us and we go home happy."

Whipple never got into the offensive flow, but she, freshman center Taryn Wicijowski and Badon kept the Utes close. Whipple had a game-high six assists, Wicijowski scored 22 points and had eight rebounds and Badon finished with 13 points.

Wicijowski dominated the Lobos inside. She scored six straight points in the first half to erase a 16-10 Lobo lead, then scored Utah's first six points in the overtime with two layups and a pair of free throws.

Halasz and Weissman combined for 29 of the Lobos' points. Weissman scored 15 and Halasz 14. The two hit 10 of 23 shots, while their teammates went a combined 4 of 28.

"We gave up a few too many offensive rebounds (10) and we got beat on a play we had defended all game," New Mexico head coach Don Flanagan said Whipple's 3-pointer. "But we can't shoot in the 20s and beat people."

New Mexico point guard Amy Beggin, who scored 18 points in the win over CSU, was 1-for-11 from the field and finished with five points.

Is there more than Xs and Os involved in this run of futility by the Lobos? Has it become a mental block? Elliott thinks so.

"There's obviously a mental part to it," Elliott said. "These things can by cyclical. There was a time when they beat us three or four in a row. You just knew there was that stress thing, that worried look."

Beggin, who had a sparkling career, last year missed two free throws — a rarity for her — in the final seconds of the Lobos' 56-55 loss to Utah.

The Utes' Morgan Warburton hit the game-winning layup after Beggin's missed free throws.

Beggin, though wasn't buying into the idea Utah has become a mental block too big for the Lobos to overcome.

"I don't think that was a factor," Beggin said. "If we had just come up with that rebound, we had a chance to win. It's just been a bounce that's gone their way every time we've played them."