MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (Dec. 14, 2025) – The Wyoming Cowgirls went on the road to close out their non-conference schedule Sunday at Minnesota. The Golden Gophers came away with an 80-34 victory.
Minnesota's size and efficiency caused trouble for the Cowgirls early on as Wyoming trailed 14-2 with 5:26 left in the first and was forced to call a timeout. The Cowgirl offense continued to struggle the rest of the first quarter. Minnesota led 19-4 after one as the UW defense tightened up later in the frame, however.
A Jane Rumpf 3-pointer opened the scoring in the second quarter. After that, the Golden Gophers started hitting the offensive glass, racking up the second-chance points. Wyoming trailed 37-9 at the media timeout. Following the timeout, the two teams started trading hoops to end the half as Minnesota led 48-17 at the break. Henna Sandvik assisted on a pair of Malene Pedersen 3-pointers and had a nice reverse layup towards the end of the half.
The second half opened the same way as the first half, as the Cowgirl offense slumped and Minnesota was able to work the ball inside. The score was 61-19 at the third quarter media timeout. The rest of the third saw the Gophers maintain the lead at 65-25, going into the fourth quarter. Payton Muma got her last two shots to fall in the quarter to score the last five in the frame for Wyoming.
Things slowed down quite a bit in the fourth as Minnesota took the air out of the ball and the Cowgirl defense bowed up. Wyoming was down 77-34 at the media timeout with 3:13 remaining in the game. The rest of the contest was played out from there as the Cowgirls' non-conference slate for 2025-26 closed.
Pedersen led the Cowgirl offense and was the only one in double figures with 10 points in the contest. Muma had seven while Sandvik added five in the loss. Sandvik also led Wyoming with three assists and four rebounds.
Wyoming shot 30.4-percent overall and 5-of-21 from beyond-the-arc against the Gophers. Minnesota shot an efficient 55.9-percent and hit 8-of-15 from 3-point range. The Golden Gophers out-rebounded the Cowgirls 39-20. Minnesota enjoyed a 17-6 advantage in second-chance points and outscored Wyoming 46-16 in points in the paint. Minnesota also scored 26 points on 18 UW turnovers.
The Cowgirls now shift their focus to conference action next. Wyoming welcomes San Jose State to Laramie to begin Mountain West action Wednesday with a 6:30 p.m., contest.
-WYO-