LARAMIE – Heather Ezell knew there would be growing pains.
 
Wyoming's head coach wants her team to get them out of the way during non-conference play.
 
The Cowgirls (0-1) experienced an excruciating 56-47 loss to St. Mary's during the regular season opener on Tuesday night at the Arena-Auditorium.
 
UW, which has four new starters and is missing steady point guard Kati Ollilainen right now as she recovers from an offseason injury, committed 20 turnovers and shot 34.1% from the field.
 
"When you've got four kids who have never started here or been in (for) multiple minutes, that's what we're going to have," Ezell said. "We talk about good, better, best. I don't know if they understand where that best shot is sometimes. They think there's going to be a better one and that's not always the case."
 
The Cowgirls looked prepared to start a fun new chapter after saying goodbye to six seniors from last season's team, including Mountain West player of the year Allyson Fertig and defensive player of the year Emily Mellema.
 
UW led 23-12 with 7:10 remaining in the second quarter, but the Gaels (1-0) created some turnovers by applying pressure on ball handlers and created problems for the home team by utilizing their length in a zone defense.
 
"We're not used to playing against a zone. We tried to emulate it the best we could the past couple of days (in practice). That was a pretty tough zone," guard Payton Muma said. "They had long and lanky (players) all out there. It was tough trying to get it into the post because of their length, but I think we should have attacked more in the middle."
 
Despite UW scoring a total of 16 points over the second and third quarters, the score was tied 35-35 entering the final frame.
 
Muma, who gave the Cowgirls a spark off the bench with nine points and an assist, drove to the rim fir a basket to tie the score 41-41 with 5:50 remaining. St. Mary's answered with a 7-0 run, including a desperation 3-pointer by Addi Wedin as the shot clock was expiring, to steal the road win.
 
"I thought we came out the gate, played really well in the first quarter. We were executing on both ends," Ezell said. "They kind of pushed up the pressure a little bit in the second quarter where they caused a couple of turnovers and were able to get back in the game. I think we kind of relaxed a little bit, which allowed them to get back in.
 
"After halftime I thought this is what happens with a young team. There's going to be ups and downs and we came out of halftime not ready to play."
 
Malene Pedersen scored 14 points to lead the Cowgirls. Ezell would like the preseason all-MW selection to be even more aggressive and not pass up open looks.
 
UW also needs Indiana transfer Henna Sandvik, who was 6-for-6 from the free throw line but 1-for-8 from the field, to help carry the scoring load to take some pressure off Pedersen.
 
"She was probably overthinking some things," Ezell said of Sandvik, who had eight points and two assists in a team-high 35 minutes. "Trying to always get closer. We talked about it in practice when they got the length they have inside, getting closer wasn't the answer. I thought she really needed to settle in and look for her mid-range game."
 
Logann Alvar, the senior from Casper, had seven points and two rebounds in her first start. Heidur Karlsdottir added five points and three rebounds off the bench as the duo attempts to fill the massive void in the post left by Fertig's graduation.
 
"I was happy with the way Logann played," Ezell said. "She battled on the defensive end, and she gave us some really good actions on the offensive end getting to the free throw line. Being strong with the ball."
 
The Cowgirls will try to ease some of the growing pains against Long Beach State on Friday night at the Arena-Auditorium (6:30 p.m., MW Network).
 
"It starts tomorrow," Muma said after Tuesday's game. "Just having a clear mind and getting ready to go in whatever they might be running. We've just got to be prepared for that and let this game go, move on to the next because we can't sulk on the loss.
 
"We got to get a (win) on Friday."
 
Follow Ryan for more stories on Wyoming athletics on X at @By_RyanThorburn on Facebook at Wyoming Athletics and Instagram at wyoathletics. Also follow him at Pokes Insider at Gowyo.com/pokesinsider.
 
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