LARAMIE, Wyo. (Dec. 15, 2023) – The Wyoming Cowgirl basketball team begins its three-game trip away from Laramie with a noon tip time Sunday at Montana State. This contest begins Wyoming's final swing of non-conference games.
Sunday's game will be broadcast live on ESPN Plus and can be heard across the Cowgirl Radio Network with David Settle on the call.
ABOUT THE COWGIRLS
Wyoming (4-4) is looking to end a current two-game skid as it plays for the third consecutive Sunday. The Cowgirls are coming off a 73-61 bout with Creighton last Sunday. UW went toe-to-toe with the No. 21 ranked Bluejays for three quarters before they pulled away late in the fourth quarter. Allyson Fertig scored a career-high 30 points on 13-of-19 shooting from the field in the loss. It marked the first time a Cowgirl has scored 30 points in a single game since McKinley Dickerson did it in February of 2022 against San Diego State. Fertig also notched her second double-double of the season as she grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.
Fertig continues to lead the Cowgirls in scoring and rebounding with 14.4 points and nearly seven boards per contest. Fertig is shooting nearly 60-percent from the field and has a team-best 12 blocks. Malene Pedersen is also scoring in double figures this season, at 10.5 a contest. Emily Mellema leads Wyoming with 22 assists and 13 steals so far in 2023-24. Off the bench, Marta Savic is averaging 7.3 points and 4.8 rebounds a game, both marks lead Cowgirl reserves.
UW comes into Sunday's contest averaging 67.3 points per game and is allowing 63.6 a contest. The Cowgirls are shooting 44-percent from the field overall, including 53.2-percent on shots inside the 3-point line. The Brown & Gold also continue to lead the nation in team free-throw shooting at 84.5-percent (93-110). Wyoming's 1.13 assist-to-turnover ratio and 24.4 points per game from its bench, both rank third in the Mountain West.
SCOUTING MONTANA STATE
Montana State enters Sunday having lost four-straight games, but all four of those contests have come away from Bozeman. The Bobcats have also been without their leading scorer, Lexi Deden, who is out for the remainder of the season, for three of those four contests. Deden was averaging a team-high 13.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per game prior to her injury. Katelynn Limardo now leads the team with 12.2 points per game and seven boards a contest. Most of Limardo's damage this season has come at the free-throw line, as she is averaging over 4.5 made free throws per contest. Marah Dykstra is averaging 8.1 points per game, a team-high 3.4 assists per game and 11 blocks.
As a team, Montana State is averaging nearly 61 points per game and is allowing 61.6 points a contest. MSU is shooting 36.7-percent from the floor and 27.2-percent from 3-point range. The Bobcats have recorded 20 more assists than their opponents this season and have three fewer turnovers. Sunday will be just the third game at home this season for the Bobcats, who already have two wins over Mountain West opponents this season in New Mexico and San Jose State.
SERIES HISTORY AGAINST MONTANA STATE
Wyoming trails the all-time series with the Bobcats, 10-12. The Cowgirls have won each of the last two meetings with Montana State but are just 2-6 all-time in Bozeman. Last season, UW defeated Montana State 67-59 in Laramie. Fertig scored 18 points in the win while Ola Ustowska and Tess Barnes added nine and eight points, respectively. Ustowska tallied a career-high six assists in that win. Prior to last season's meeting, UW and MSU met 6-of-7 seasons from 2012 to 2018.
-WYO-
