LARAMIE, Wyo. (Dec. 8, 2020) – 25th-ranked Gonzaga shot 55 percent from the field and held Wyoming to just 34.6 percent shooting as the Cowgirls fell in their non-conference home finale Tuesday night in the Arena-Auditorium, 89-50.
Wyoming (1-1) trailed by just two, 20-18 after the first quarter but was outscored in the second 22-12 and found themselves trailing at the half, 42-30. The Bulldogs (2-2) shot 9-of-12 from the floor in the second while UW was just 4-of-12. In the second half, Gonzaga picked up right where it left off to end the first and outscored the Cowgirls 47-20 in the final 20 minutes. UW shot just 7-for-25 (28 percent) in the last two quarters.
"Gonzaga's good players were the difference tonight, their length and physicality caused us to double down in the post and then their ability to shoot the ball let them get on a roll, they played like a top-20 team tonight," said Head Coach Gerald Mattinson.
"I knew it was going to be a challenge for us, after watching them on film, for us to defend their bigs and then everybody else. They executed and came in with a chip on their shoulder and played that way. We have to learn to be able to answer that."
The Bulldogs shot 12-of-20 from 3-point range, a 60 percent clip while Wyoming hit 7-of-24 (29.2 percent) from deep. GU also had a 38-22 scoring edge in paint points while also getting 16 second-chance points and 40 points off the bench. The Cowgirls meanwhile, had three second-chance points and 16 from their bench.
Quinn Weidemann led the way for the Cowgirls with eight points on the night and hit a pair of 3-pointers. McKinley Bradshaw, Dagny Davidsdottir and Alba Sanchez Ramos all added seven. Davidsdottir led UW with six rebounds while Sanchez Ramos dished out three assists. Tommi Olson led Wyoming with four assists in the loss.
Jaye Johnson led the Cowgirl bench with six points as she went 2-for-4 from 3-point range while Marta Savic, in her first action with the Brown & Gold, scored five points and grabbed four boards. Paula Salazar also made her career debut and chipped in with a pair of buckets and recorded the Cowgirls' lone block.
Jenn Wirth led the way for the Bulldogs as she scored 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting and had 10 boards and three assists on the night. Cierra Walker added 12 and went a perfect 4-for-4 from 3-point range.
UW got out of the gates strong, shooting 7-of-13 in the first quarter, but a 16-0 run from the Bulldogs to end the first and begin the first 3:29 of the second quarter put them up 32-18 and they would not look back, leading by as many as 16 in the half, 28-22 with 3:24 to play.
"I thought that Paula gave us some good offense, she did what we asked her to do. I hope the biggest learning experience that we take away from this is we learn the level that we have to be at in order to prepare, in order to keep growing and learning to compete all throughout the rest of the year," continued Mattinson.
Next up for the Cowgirls is the beginning of Mountain West play as UW travels to face UNLV December 12 and 14 in Las Vegas. Both games will tip at 2:30 p.m., Mountain Time. There will be a total of 20 MW games this season and will feature two-game series with each opponent with a rest day in-between games.
-WYO-