LARAMIE, Wyo. (Oct. 29, 2021) – The Wyoming Cowgirls unofficially opened up the 2021-22 season Friday night in Laramie with the first of two exhibitions this season. UW took care of business against Colorado Christian in a 106-47 win.
UW opened with the first six points of the game, four of which came from Grace Ellis. Ellis had six of the Cowgirls' first eight points in the contest. After a bit of a sluggish start to the game, the Cowgirls made three consecutive baskets to go up 12-5, forcing a CCU timeout with 5:14 left in the first quarter.
Out of the timeout, UW continued to extend the lead however, thanks to some solid bench scoring from the Cowgirl reserves and an active defense. Wyoming led 25-9 after the opening stanza, thanks to over 63 percent shooting from the field in the frame.
In the second, it was more of the same from UW as strong shooting and a suffocating defense lengthened the Cowgirl lead to a 51-26 advantage at the half. Wyoming shot 60.6 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes, while holding the Cougars to 30.6 percent shooting.
The second half began with more solid play from the Cowgirls and it was once again Ellis that got the UW offense going to begin the half, as she scored six points in the opening five minutes of the third quarter.
CCU was able to gain a little bit of traction in the third quarter, but it was once again the Cowgirl bench that provided the spark late in the frame for Wyoming, UW got back-to-back hoops in the paint by Allyson Fertig, which was then followed by back-to-back 3-pointers from Ola Ustwoska, which pushed the Cowgirl lead to 74-38 with 40 seconds to play in the quarter.
The fourth quarter brought a methodical offensive approach from the Cowgirls as they just tried to wind the clock down in the final 10 minutes, but they continued to extend the lead throughout in the period. All 12 Cowgirls that were able played in the exhibition and all 12 Cowgirls scored.
"It's really important that we were able to play everyone tonight," said Head Coach Gerald Mattinson.
"We've got enough minutes of tape on them now, so that we can go in and go 'OK, this is what you did well, this is what we need to improve on.' I thought our young kids did some really, really good things and then sometimes it was like 'whoa, we've got to get this figured out'".
Wyoming shot 61 percent from the field in the victory and went 10-of-22 from 3-point range. The Cougars meanwhile, were held to just 29.4 percent from the floor and went 6-for-29 from beyond-the-arc.
The Cowgirls forced 21 Cougar turnovers, leading to 28 points. Wyoming also doubled up CCU in bench points, 50-25 and outscored it 56-20 in points in the paint.
McKinley Bradshaw led four Cowgirls in double figures with a game-high 17 points. Bradshaw was 6-of-9 from the field and hit 3-of-5 from 3-point range. Ellis and Alba Sanchez Ramos each had 14 and combined to shoot 11-for-13 from the floor. Sanchez Ramos also added four boards, four assists and three steals on the night.
Fertig led all bench scorers with 12 points. Fertig also grabbed seven rebounds and had a pair of blocks. Paula Salazar led the way on the glass for the Cowgirls as she pulled down eight rebounds to go along with eight points on a 4-for-5 shooting night. Quinn Weidemann tallied six assists in the win and Tommi Olson picked up right where she left off last season, notching five steals and four assists on the night to go along with eight points.
"I'm pleased, obviously, that we were able to score as many points as we did," said Mattinson.
"I think that was paramount as it was something that we struggled with last year, so that's a plus. We showed that we've got some multiple weapons. We still made a lot of mistakes tonight, there's still some things we need to clean up before the next exhibition and then definitely clean it up by the first game."
Wyoming now returns to the court next Friday night, November 5 for the second of its exhibitions. The Cowgirls will face Colorado-Colorado Springs at 6:30 p.m. The Nov. 5 contest will be the banner drop and ring ceremony, celebrating the Cowgirls' 2021 Mountain West Tournament title last March.
-WYO-