DENVER, Colo. (Nov. 27, 2021) – The Wyoming Cowgirl basketball team put together an impressive offensive display Saturday afternoon on the road, as they defeated Denver 81-51 in the closing game of the Pioneer Thanksgiving Classic. The 81 points by the Cowgirls sets a season-best for them in scoring, as did the 30-point margin of victory.
Wyoming (3-3) set numerous season-bests on the offensive end in the victory, scoring 28 points in the first quarter, their best output for a single quarter thus far in 2021-22, jumping on the Pioneers early, 28-11 after one. In the second quarter, the UW offense slowed down a bit, outscoring Denver 15-12 in the frame and carried a 43-23 lead into halftime. The 43 points are tied for the Cowgirls' best scoring half of the season. UW scored 43 in the first half against Chadron State.
Out of the half, the Cowgirls again put together an impressive run to begin the second half, putting up 26 points in the third. After Denver had cut the Wyoming lead down to 49-31 with 7:06 to play in the third, the Cowgirls ramped it up on both ends of the court, closing the frame on a 20-5 run over a six-plus-minute span and led 69-33 after three.
In the fourth, the Cowgirls played their reserves for much of the frame, as Denver got the lead to under 30 points as UW just salted the game away. Wyoming's biggest lead of the game was 36 points, multiple times.
"I'm really pleased with today, really proud of the way we played and the effort," said Head Coach Gerald Mattinson.
"I thought we came out today and our defensive effort, sparked our offensive effort. We got after it, we took them out of what they wanted to do. We also got some good looks on offense and the shots went down for us. This weekend, I thought our offense played well in both games. These last two games were the best we looked so far this season I thought."
Wyoming opened both the game and the second half with hot-shooting as it shot 11-for-15 from the floor in the first quarter and hit its lone 3-pointer, via McKinley Bradshaw. In the third, the Cowgirls shot 8-of-15 from the floor to help lengthen its lead out of the locker room.
A day after struggling at the free-throw line in the loss to Tulane, the Cowgirls were near-perfect Saturday, going a season-best 21-for-22 (96 percent) at the stripe. For the game, the Cowgirls shot 46 percent (28-for-61) from the floor, despite going just 4-of-17 from 3-point range. DU shot 32.7 percent (17-for-52) overall and 5-for-24 from 3-point land in the contest.
UW outscored the Pioneers 42-22 in points in the paint and had a 21-14 edge in points off of turnovers. The Cowgirls forced 16 Denver turnovers in the game while committing just 10 turnovers of their own. The Cowgirl bench once again had a big day as they outscored the Denver reserves, 35-9.
Allyson Fertig led the UW reserves with 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting and tied for the team lead with six rebounds. It marks the third consecutive game that Fertig has set a new career-high in scoring. Fertig was also named to the All-Tournament Team after the contest. Fertig averaged 15.5 points and six boards per game and shot 61.1 percent (11-for-18) from the field in the two games.
Bradshaw also had 16 points in the win as she hit 6-of-12 shots and went 2-for-5 from beyond-the-arc. Quinn Weidemann and Grace Ellis also finished in double figures in the win, going for 13 and 11, respectively.
Alba Sanchez Ramos and Tommi Olson both played while for the Cowgirls in a non-offensive capacity Saturday. Sanchez Ramos also grabbed six rebounds on the day and dished-out a career-best six assists. Olson meanwhile, also pulled down six boards and had four assists and a game-high four steals. Emily Mellema also had a nice game off the bench in the win as she scored a career-high nine points while also recording a pair of assists.
The Cowgirls next will continue their three-game stretch away from home late next week as they travel to face Gonzaga, Friday, December 3 in a 7 p.m., Mountain Time matchup.
-WYO-