LARAMIE, Wyo. (Dec. 17, 2025) – The Wyoming Cowgirls opened Mountain West play Wednesday with an impressive offensive display in a 83-60 win over San Jose State. The Cowgirls were particularly sharp in the second and third quarters, scoring 29 and 25 points, respectively in those frames.
"When they came out in the zone tonight, it took us a minute to adjust," said Head Coach Heather Ezell.
"We had to get into what we wanted to do in our zone offense. In the second quarter we settled in. It took us about a quarter to adjust to where our movement needed to come from and where we were going to get good looks from."
Malene Pedersen got Wyoming's first eight points of the game, but San Jose State held an early lead to begin the contest. The Spartans led 9-6 at the first media timeout. Out of the timeout, the Cowgirls took their first lead of the game, on the first non-Pedersen points as Heidur Karlsdottir hit a jumper. The lead didn't last long however, as San Jose State hit a 3-pointer on its next possession. The score was tied 12-12 after one.
San Jose State's hot outside shooting continued to begin the second quarter as the Wyoming offensive continued to find its rhythm. A Henna Sandvik 3-pointer broke the Cowgirls' cold spell from outside and helped jumpstart the offense. The two teams started trading 3-pionters from there however, as the score was tied 25-25 at the media. Following the timeout, the two teams exchanged the lead before back-to-back Cowgirl threes and a Pedersen jumper pushed UW in front by nine, forcing a Spartan timeout with 1:57 left in the half. After Wyoming pushed the advantage to double digits out of the timeout, SJSU cut the deficit down to six before a Jane Rumpf heave beat the buzzer to give the Cowgirls a 41-32 halftime lead.
After Wyoming got the first hoop of the second half, the 3-point barrage continued from both teams for a bit. The UW lead was brought up to 54-40 as SJSU was forced to call another timeout with 4:13 left in the frame. After the timeout, the Cowgirl lead was extended to as many as 21 and was a 66-45 advantage at the end of the third.
The two teams traded hoops to begin the fourth as Wyoming maintained a lead of 20-plus points. Both teams were hot offensively the first part of the quarter as the Cowgirls led 76-55 at the final media timeout. The final handful of minutes Wednesday saw UW take the air out of the ball as reserves carried the Brown & Gold to the finish line.
Pedersen (21) and Sandvik (21) led Wyoming in scoring and became the first pair of Cowgirl teammates to score 20-plus in the same game since Pedersen and Allyson Fertig accomplished the feat last season against Air Force. The Cowgirls got 29 points from their bench, including eight each from Lana Beslic and Rumpf. That was a career-best for Rumpf in the win. Karlsdottir scored six and grabbed seven rebounds in the win.
Logann Alvar scored six and along with Beslic, Karlsdottir and Sandvik, led Wyoming with seven boards. UW also distributed the ball well in the victory, recording a season-best 23 assists on 33 made shots. It marked the third time this season the Cowgirls have recorded 20-plus assists. Payton Muma led the way with a career-high six dimes. Pedersen and Sandvik had five assists each.
Wyoming shot nearly 46-percent (33-72) in the win and hit 10-of-26 (38.5-percent) from 3-point range. SJSU shot 21-for-60 (35-percent) and made 8-of-25 from beyond-the-arc. The Spartans shot just 2-of-11 from deep in the second half.
The Cowgirls outscored San Jose 34-20 in points in the paint and had a big time, 24-8 edge in second-chance points. Wyoming was plus-15 on the boards and collected 15 offensive rebounds. UW also had 14 points off turnovers and committed just seven turnovers, leading to eight SJSU points.
Next up, the Cowgirls will hit the road for the first time in the young conference season. Wyoming travels to California to face Fresno State in a 3 p.m., Mountain Time contest.
-WYO-