LARAMIE, Wyo. (Nov. 7, 2025) – The Wyoming Cowgirls jumped on Long Beach State early and led wire-to-wire Friday night to pick up their first win of the season in front of the home crowd. The Cowgirls shot 54.7-percent from the floor and held LBSU to just 27.3-percent shooting in the 72-39 win.
"A game like this is important to see what we talk about on the scouting report, especially on the defensive end, to see it work," said Head Coach Heather Ezell.
"They executed it to almost perfection. I think that's one key. Then they were able to come out and execute on the offensive end, I think they were having fun out there. To be able to do something like that gets all of their confidence rolling. I think they were all playing pretty loose, which is a good thing. Those are the type of games you want from them and they can start feeling good about themselves."
The Cowgirls came out firing Friday, opening the scoring with the first 12 points of the game. Wyoming hit five of its first seven shots in the contest. After the first quarter media timeout, Long Beach State got its first hoop of the game after missing its first eight shots to begin. The UW offense continued to hum the rest of the quarter, as did the strong defense as it led 23-4 after one. Wyoming shot 10-of-18 in the first 10 minutes while The Beach went 2-for-14.
After LBSU started the second with back-to-back hoops, Malene Pedersen forced a Long Beach State timeout with 8:02 left in the half after she scored five straight points to make it 28-8. Following the timeout, The Beach started cutting into the Cowgirl lead before three points from Lana Beslic, followed by an assist on a Henna Sandvik 3-pointer pushed the Wyoming lead to 34-13. The Cowgirls took a 38-19 lead into the break.
Long Beach State opened the second half with a 3-pointer before back-to-back-to-back layups from Wyoming got the lead back up to 22 and forced an LBSU timeout with 7:59 remaining in the third. Out of the timeout, the two teams traded baskets for a bit as the Cowgirls led 50-24 at the media timeout. UW's advantage was 56-28 after three complete.
Wyoming scored the first 11 points of the fourth to build a 39-point advantage before the final media timeout. Following the media, the Cowgirls played mostly reserves the final 4:23 of the contest as LBSU cut into the advantage to make things more respectable in the final box score. Nine of the 10 Cowgirls that played in the overwhelming victory, scored Friday night.
Pedersen led all scorers with 15 points in under 27 minutes of play. It is Pedersen's 22nd consecutive game scoring in double figures. Pedersen shot 6-of-8 from the floor and made 3-of-4 from 3-point range. She also pulled down eight rebounds and dished out seven assists on the night.
Logann Alvar scored a career-best 14 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the floor and tied a career-high with five rebounds. It is the first time at Wyoming that Alvar has scored 10-plus points. Joining Alvar on the career-high train was Beslic, who had 10 and scored her first-career points with the Cowgirls, Madi Symons, who scored eight and Sandvik who scored a Wyoming career-high 10. The trio combined to shoot 10-of-19 from the field and made four 3-pointers. Jane Rumpf and Peyton Wohlford also scored their first points with the Brown & Gold in the win.
UW shot 29-of-53 on the night and assisted on 20 made baskets. The Cowgirls held LBSU to just 15-for-55 shooting and 4-of-22 from beyond-the-arc. Wyoming made 9-of-21 from deep and also enjoyed a plus-11 margin in rebounding.
The Cowgirls enjoyed a 36-20 advantage in points in the paint and also got an 18-10 edge in points off turnovers. Wyoming scored 15 bench points on the night while The Beach got four from reserves. The Cowgirls also had a 5-2 edge in fast break points.
Next up, Wyoming hits the road for three consecutive contests. The Cowgirls travel to face UT Arlington Tuesday, November 11 at 5:30 p.m., Mountain Time.
-WYO-