LARAMIE, Wyo. (Oct. 28, 2022) – The Wyoming Cowgirls began play Friday night with the first of two exhibitions to begin the 2022-23 season. UW took care of business in the exhibition against Colorado Christian, winning 68-36.
Wyoming got off to a slow start in the contest, turning the ball over three times in the opening two and a half minutes while CCU hit 3-of-4 shots to begin the game to take an early 8-2 lead. From there, the Cowgirls responded with back-to-back 3-pointers to knot the game up at 8-8. The Cougars led 10-8 at the first quarter media timeout.
Cowgirl turnovers continued to plague in the first quarter as they committed six in the exhibition's opening 10 minutes. A Quinn Weidemann 3-pointer with a little over two minutes left in the quarter gave UW its first lead of the game. The Cowgirls started to find their offensive rhythm in the latter stages of the frame, ending the quarter on a 6-2 run and led 16-12 after one.
UW scored the first six points of the second quarter and outscored the Cougars 16-4 overall in the frame as the Cowgirl defensive pressure ratcheted up. CCU shot just 2-of-14 and committed four turnovers in the second as Wyoming carried a 32-16 lead into halftime.
The second half opened with Wyoming continuing to strengthen its grip on the contest. The Cowgirls outscored the Cougars 11-4 in the frame's first five minutes and led 43-20 at the third quarter media with exactly five minutes to play in the third. Out of the timeout, both teams began trading baskets and Wyoming maintained its lead into the fourth, 54-29.
The Brown & Gold closed things out well Friday, enjoying a 14-7 edge in the final 10 minutes. In all, 10 Cowgirls scored in the exhibition.
Wyoming enjoyed a huge rebounding advantage in the contest, out-rebounding the Cougars 56-26, including grabbing 20 offensive boards, leading to 22 second-chance points. UW also went to the free-throw line much more frequently than CCU in the game. The Cowgirls made 17 free throws on the night, going 17-of-25 at the line while the Cougars were 7-for-10.
The Cowgirls shot just 35-percent from the floor Friday but held CCU to just 24.5-percent shooting. UW hit nine 3-pointers on the night while Colorado Christian made just three, going 1-for-20 after a 2-for-2 start from beyond-the-arc.
"It was nice to get that first game under your belt," said Head Coach Heather Ezell postgame.
"I know that in the end, after this game you're still zero and zero but getting those nerves out is the best part about a night like tonight."
Weidemann led the way offensively for the Cowgirls on the night, scoring a game-high 20 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the floor, including going 5-for-5 from 3-point range. Weidemann also added five boards, a trio of assists and two steals in the win.
Emily Mellema also ended the contest in double figures as she had 13 and hit seven free throws while dishing-out a game-high four assists. Marta Savic and Grace Moyers both had eight off the bench for UW with Savic grabbing seven boards and Moyers hitting a pair of threes. Allyson Fertig led the way with 11 rebounds in just 19 minutes of action while Grace Ellis had a solid all-around game, scoring seven points, grabbing five rebounds and recording a pair of assists.
"We had a couple of different challenges that we brought to the team at halftime," continued Ezell. We had nine turnovers at halftime, I told them I wanted it under 15 and we ended up with 14, so to be able to do that with some of the younger kids we put into the game, speaks volumes about what we wanted from them."
"We did let them get to the free-throw line 10 times in the second half and some of that was a product of having the young kids in, them getting used to the pace and speed of the game, but we will continue to grow from it."
Next for the Cowgirls will be the final exhibition before regular season play tips off. UW hosts Sioux Falls at 2 p.m., Saturday, November 5.
-WYO-