LAS VEGAS - With a defender on her hip, Krissy Karr drove left and buried a 6-foot jump shot as time expired to give the Idaho women's basketball team a 57-55 win over San Jose State in the quarterfinals of the Western Athletic Conference tournament Wednesday afternoon.

"That wasn't the play that was called," said Karr, a sophomore. "But then I heard coach (Jon) Newlee say, 'Go, go,' so I just went for it and I got the lucky bounce."

The buzzer-beater capped a 15-point comeback for the third-seeded Vandals, who found themselves in a 26-11 hole 12 minutes into the game.

"We talked after the Seattle U game about buzzer-beaters and how we were on the bad end of it," said Newlee, whose team's last three losses each came by two points. "When we got to Las Vegas, we talked in the locker room about if that situation came up, it would be our turn to hit the shot. Our players embraced that and Krissy certainly did in the end."

The Vandals (15-15) is now in the WAC semifinals for the second consecutive season. They will face Utah State at noon Friday.

The game was tied at 55-all for nearly three minutes, with neither team able pull ahead. With one minute left, Idaho (15-15) had the ball with a chance to go ahead but Stacey Barr was called for a charge, giving the Spartans the ball with 44 seconds.

SJSU's Riana Byrd was fouled with 15 seconds to play, but missed both free throws, and Idaho's Ali Forde grabbed the rebound, and the Vandals took timeout to draw up a final play.

Karr finished with 10 points off the bench. The buzzer-beater was the second of her career; she hit a 3-pointer as time expired in an 87-86 overtime win at Nevada on Feb. 9, 2012.

Sophomore Stacey Barr led Idaho with 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting. Forde, a freshman, came close to a double-double, finishing with nine points and nine rebounds. She was 4-of-6 from the field and added three blocks and two steals.

"I was definitely nervous in the first half," Forde said. "After the timeout coach told me to play free, and I was able to relax and play my game."

Idaho led 5-4 about 21/2 minutes into the game, but then tallied just one field goal over the next seven minutes as the Spartans (11-19) built a double-digit lead.

Idaho settled in toward the end of the first half, chipping away at SJSU's lead until the score was 33-28 at halftime.

Idaho kept the game within two possessions the entire second half, but didn't regain the lead until Alyssa Charlston hit a fast-break layup with 4:16 to play that put the Vandals ahead 53-52.

But that lead lasted only 26 seconds, as Byrd made a layup on the other end to put San Jose State back on top 54-53 before the 55-55 deadlock.

SAN JOSE STATE (11-19)

Schill 6-9 1-2 13, Byrd 6-11 4-8 16, James 3-10 1-1 9, Thomas 2-12 0-0 6, Cunnigan 4-15 0-0 9, Hill 0-1 0-0 0, Tauala 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 22-59 6-11 55.

IDAHO (15-15)

Forde 4-6 1-5 9, Charlston 3-8 2-6 8, Salvatore 1-8 0-0 3, Barr 7-9 0-0 17, Ballestero 4-11 0-0 8, Karr 4-11 1-1 10, Schivo 0-0 0-0 0, Graham 1-4 0-0 2. Totals 24-57 4-12 47.

Halftime - SJSU 33, Idaho 28. Three-point goals - SJSU 5-15 (James 2-6, Thomas 2-5, Cunnigan 1-4); Idaho 5-21 (Charlston 0-1, Salvatore 1-5, Barr 3-4, Ballestero 0-3, Karr 1-7, Graham 0-1). Rebounds - SJSU 40 (Byrd 17); Idaho 37 (Forde 9). Assists - SJSU 12 (Cunnigan 6); Idaho 8 (Ballestero 4). Total fouls - SJSU 13, Idaho 13. Technical fouls - none. Fouled out - none.