LARAMIE, Wyo. (Nov. 5, 2021) – On a special night in Laramie, in which the Wyoming Cowgirls basketball team celebrated the 2021 Mountain West Tournament title with a banner reveal and ring ceremony, UW had one final tune-up Friday night before the regular season begins, as the Cowgirls defeated UC Colorado Springs in exhibition action 66-39.
Wyoming got out of the gates on fire offensively as Alba Sanchez Ramos got the scoring going for the Cowgirls in the contest, hitting the first two shots of the night, both 3-pointers. UW hit each of its first five shots to begin the game and took a 13-4 lead into the game's first media timeout.
The Cowgirls shot 9-of-12 from the field in the opening quarter and ended the first on a 10-2 run, leading 24-10 after one. About the only thing the Cowgirls didn't do well in the first quarter was free-throw shooting, going 3-of-7 at the line.
In the second, there weren't as many offensive fireworks for Wyoming as the offense sputtered in the frame. However, the Cowgirls continued to play solid defense, holding the Mountain Lions to an eight-point quarter and took a 34-18 lead into the locker room.
The second half began much the same way as the first half ended, with both teams struggling to get shots to fall. A McKinley Bradshaw three-point play with 5:33 to go in the third quarter seemed to spark the Cowgirls offensively however, and UW led 46-25 at the third quarter media.
Out of the timeout, UCCS made a run to cut into the Wyoming lead, making it a 48-31 score before an Emily Mellema 3-pointer pushed the Cowgirl advantage back to 20 points. UW carried a 53-31 lead into the final quarter.
The fourth quarter brought another solid defensive effort from both teams to begin as UW led 60-37 after the final media. The Cowgirls emptied the bench down the stretch as all 12 Cowgirls that were able, once again played in the exhibition.
Allyson Fertig led all scorers on the night with 17 points on 7-fo-13 from the floor. Bradshaw and Quinn Weidemann were the other two Cowgirls in double-figures, scoring 11 and 10, respectively. Sanchez Ramos grabbed nine boards to go along with seven points in the win, while Tommi Olson had seven assists and six boards on the night.
The Cowgirls only outscored UCCS 32-28 in the paint, but had a 12-4 advantage in points off turnovers and got 33 points from the bench, while the Mountain Lions got 18 from their reserves.
For the game, UW shot just 39.7 percent (23-for-58) after its hot start in the first quarter. The Cowgirls went 6-of-21 from 3-point range and made just 14-of-25 at the charity stripe. UCCS meanwhile, shot just 26.6 percent from the field and made 1-of-18 3-pointers.
"I'm looking forward to the regular season beginning Tuesday and I hope the girls are," said Head Coach Gerald Mattinson postgame.
"To me, I look at it as if we've already played two games. It doesn't matter to me whether they count or don't count. We've played two games, and I thought we played one really one and then one not so well."
Wyoming will now open the 2021-22 regular season Tuesday morning at 11 a.m., as the Cowgirls tip-off the season for keeps, as CSU Pueblo comes to town for Education Day at the Arena-Auditorium.
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