LARAMIE, Wyo. (Oct. 26, 2022) – The Wyoming Cowgirls unofficially tip-off the 2022-23 season with the first of two exhibition contests beginning Friday night at 6:30 as Wyoming welcomes Colorado Christian to the Arena-Auditorium.
Friday's contest will be broadcast live on the Mountain West Network and can be heard across the Cowgirl Radio Network with Keith Kelley on the call for his third season doing play-by-play for Cowgirl basketball.
ABOUT THE COWGIRLS
Wyoming is coming off a 17-13 season in 2021-22 and a Round of 16 appearance in the Women's NIT. The Cowgirls, who were picked fourth in the Preseason Mountain West Poll, announced earlier this month by the league office, is led by first-year Head Coach Heather Ezell. Ezell is in her eighth season overall with program, after spending the previous seven seasons as a Cowgirl assistant, including the last three as associate head coach.
Wyoming returns a pair of All-Mountain West performers from a season ago as Allyson Fertig and Quinn Weidemann return. Fertig was the 2021-22 Mountain West Freshman of the Year while Weidemann was named to the All-Defense Team for the second consecutive season. The third Cowgirl starter returning for 2022-23 is Tommi Olson, who along with Weidemann, is taking advantage of a fifth year of eligibility provided by the NCAA due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Weidemann enters her final season in the Brown & Gold 21st all-time in program history with 1,113 career points. Weidemann also enters the year seventh all-time with 198 made 3-pointers during her Cowgirl career, is 14th in career games played with 117 and is 18th with 245 career assists. Weidemann's career 3-point percentage of 41-percent is fourth-best in program history while her 86.6-percent shooting from the free-throw line is tied for second all-time. Olson, meanwhile, ranks 12th in program history with 147 career steals and is 14th with 281 assists. Olson finished last season ranking 10th in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio at a 2.65 mark.
Fertig averaged 10.5 points and 8.7 rebounds per game during her freshman campaign. Her 9.5 rebounds per contest during league play ranked third-best in the Mountain West a season ago. Fertig, who closed last season with three consecutive double-doubles, recorded 10 double-doubles overall in 2021-22 and had 17 games in which she scored in double-figures and had 14 double-digit rebounding efforts.
UW looks to replace a pair of starters from a season ago in McKinley Bradshaw and Alba Sanchez Ramos. Bradshaw was an All-Mountain West Team honoree last season after scoring nearly 15 points per game. Sanchez Ramos, meanwhile, averaged eight points and 6.4 rebounds per game in 2021-22. With that, the Cowgirls still return 66-percent of their scoring output from last season and 71-percent of their rebounding effort.
The Wyoming bench returns seven key contributors in Tess Barnes, Lexi Bull, Grace Ellis, Emily Mellema, Paula Salazar, Marta Savic and Ola Ustowska. The Cowgirls also welcome a trio of newcomers in transfers Malene Pedersen (Kansas State) and Bailey Wilborn (Maine), as well as incoming freshman Grace Moyers (Erie, Colo.) who joined the Cowgirls second semester last academic year.
Ellis and Mellema each played in all 30 games last season, with Ellis making eight starts in 2021-22. Ellis averaged 5.6 points and 3.5 rebounds per game off the bench last season and shot an impressive 55-of-64 (86-percent) from the free-throw line. Mellema averaged 3.7 points, 1.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists per contest in her freshman campaign last year. Salazar, meanwhile, appeared in 25 contests and averaged 3.8 points and a pair of rebounds per game while finishing second on the squad with 10 blocks.
SCOUTING COLORADO CHRISTIAN
The Cougars lose their top three scorers off last season's squad that went 9-18 overall and 6-15 in the RMAC. Agnes Paul is CCU's leading returning-scorer from 2021-22 after averaging 8.5 rebounds per game. Paul was also the Cougars' second-leading rebounder last season, averaging 6.5 boards per contest. Colorado Christian averaged 63.1 points per game and shot 38.2-percent from the floor. Cougar opponents, meanwhile, scored at a 69.3-point clip per game in 2021-22 and shot just over 41-percent from the field. CCU added a trio of transfers to this season's squad in Makenna Bodette (South Dakota Mines), Regan LoConte (Quincy) and Dasiya Jones (Regis). The Cougars are led by second-year head coach, Diane Thompson.
SERIES HISTORY AGAINST COLORADO CHRISTIAN
Although Friday's contest is an exhibition, the Cowgirls are 2-0 all-time against CCU during the regular season, having won in 2017 and '19. UW defeated the Cougars 106-47 last season in an exhibition contest. All 12 of the Cowgirls that played in that exhibition, scored, and were led by former Cowgirl, McKinley Bradshaw's 17 points.
-WYO-
