LARAMIE, Wyo. (Feb. 24, 2023) – The Wyoming Cowgirls close the regular season Saturday night on national TV as they welcome Border Rival Colorado State for a 7:30 tip in a contest that has huge implications for seeding at the Mountain West Tournament. The contest will also be Senior Night at 7220 as a pair of all-time Cowgirls, Tommi Olson and Quinn Weidemann will be honored prior to the game.
Saturday's game will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 with Ari Wolfe and Bill Herenda on the call. Saturday can also be heard across the Cowgirl Radio Network with David Settle on the call. This will be Wyoming's first nationally televised regular season game since 2012.
ABOUT THE COWGIRLS
Wyoming (19-9, 12-5 MW) is coming off an 81-66 victory over Nevada in Laramie Thursday night. The 81 points, 59-percent shooting overall and 63.6-percent 3-point shooting were all season-highs for the Cowgirls this season. Allyson Fertig led the way with 23 points on 11-of-14 shooting on the night. It's Fertig's third consecutive and the fourth time in the last five games that she's scored 20-or-more points. In those last five contests, Fertig is averaging 21.2 points, eight rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game while shooting 46-of-58 (79.3-percent) from the floor.
Malene Pedersen and Weidemann also scored in double figures in the win over the Wolf Pack. Pedersen scored 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting and also tied a career-high with nine rebounds in the contest. Weidemann, meanwhile, scored 16 on an extremely efficient 6-of-8 shooting while going a perfect 3-for-3 from 3-point range. Off the bench, Marta Savic and Emily Mellema scored eight and seven points, respectively. Tess Barnes led UW reserves with four assists in the win while Olson led the way with five assists, her sixth game this season with five-plus dimes.
In Mountain West action this season, Fertig is now up to 15 points and 8.2 rebounds per contest, which both rank third in the league. Fertig's 64-percent shooting is tops in the conference while her 2.1 blocks per game rank second. Weidemann and Pedersen are averaging 11.4 and 11.2 points per game, respectively in MW play with Weidemann's 22 3-pointers tying for the team-lead along with Olson. Olson is shooting nearly 47-percent from beyond-the-arc in conference action this season and is averaging 3.1 assists per.
With a win Saturday, Wyoming would reach 20 victories in a season for the first time since 2018-19. It would also mark the first time since that season that the Cowgirls would notch 13 conference wins. As far as the Mountain West standings are concerned, UW sits alone in second place at 12-5, a half game ahead of CSU and San Diego State, who were both idle Thursday night. A win Saturday would secure no worse than the No. 3 seed for the Cowgirls in March's Mountain West Tournament. A victory and a loss by SDSU in either of its last two regular season games would give Wyoming the second seed.
SCOUTING COLORADO STATE
Colorado State is led by the Mountain West's leading scorer and leading assister in McKenna Hofschild who is averaging 21.2 points and 7.3 assists per game. Hofschild is shooting 50-percent from the floor and 47-percent from 3-point range. Hofschild is also the only Ram to start in all 27 games this season. Destiny Thurman (13.1) and Cailyn Crocker (11.3) also average in double figures in scoring in 2022-23. Cali Clark leads the Rams in rebounding at 6.3 per contest and has a team-best 33 blocked shots.
As a team, the Rams are potent offensively, averaging nearly 74 points per game, which ranks second-best in the league. CSU shoots 45.4-percent as a team, which also ranks second in the MW while its 38-percent 3-point shooting is tops in the conference. The Rams commit just 8.7 turnovers per game, which also leads the Mountain West. Colorado State also shoots a league-leading 79.5-percent at the free-throw line and is being out-rebounded by five per contest as a team.
SERIES HISTORY AGAINST COLORADO STATE
Colorado State leads the all-time series, 56-54. The Cowgirls are 29-21 in the series at home and won last season's regular-season finale in Laramie, 69-63 in overtime. CSU has won 5-of-6 recently in the series, including 66-63 in the meeting earlier this season in Fort Collins.
SATURDAY'S PROMOTIONS
Saturday will be the One Wyoming Game for the Cowgirls. Fans in attendance Saturday will receive a One Wyoming rally towel. UW is also offering a ticket promotion to the contest. Fans can purchase a pair of tickets for $14 or can get a family pack (4 tickets) for $24 using the promo code WBBSENIORS.
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