LARAMIE, Wyo. (Feb. 26, 2025) – Although it wasn't always the prettiest game on offense, the Wyoming Cowgirls put together a masterful defensive performance Wednesday night at home against New Mexico. The Cowgirls stymied the Lobos to the tune of a 59-40 victory. The 40 points from UNM are its fewest since early last season.
After both teams hit their first shot attempts of the game, the two defenses settled in a bit. The Cowgirls would go on a quick 9-0 run from there and led 11-4 at the first quarter media timeout. Following the timeout, New Mexico would go trim the deficit down a bit, as UW led 17-11 after one.
The beginning of the second remained a defensive struggle as each team had just one made field goal more than four minutes into the quarter. The Wyoming lead was 24-15 at the media timeout after a Madi Symons 3-pointer. Out of the timeout, the Cowgirl lead reached as many as 12 before the Lobos would respond to cut the deficit down to 31-23 at halftime as UNM would hit a 3-pointer just before the buzzer.
New Mexico would get the first hoop of the second half before Wyoming would respond with back-to-back 3-pointers to go back up by a dozen. The lead ballooned up to 14 before UNM punched back to make the score just 40-32 at the media. After the timeout, the Cowgirl offensive slump continued before a much-needed 3-pointer from Malene Pedersen got the lead back up to 11, forcing a Lobo timeout with 1:49 left in the third. Following the timeout, McKinley Dickerson's six straight points brought the lead up to 17 as the Wyoming lead was 49-32 going to the fourth.
UW got the lead up to 19 to begin the fourth before dry spells on offense hit both teams. The Cowgirls would call timeout with 5:22 left, leading 51-33. Following the timeout, things remained stagnant on offense for both squads as the Cowgirls continued to play strong defense. After an Allyson Fertig layup fell and a Kati Ollilainen driving layup, the lead was up to 22 with under four minutes to play, forcing a UNM timeout. Both teams emptied the bench after the Lobo timeout.
Fertig led all scorers with 15 points on the night and was one rebound shy of another double-double. Pedersen and Dickerson scored 11 and 10, respectively. Tess Barnes, who scored eight, also grabbed six rebounds and had a team-best four assists. Barnes was also masterful on the defensive end, holding New Mexico's Viane Cumber to just eight points on 3-of-15 shooting and 2-for-11 from 3-point range. Cumber entered the contest averaging over 16 points per game and shooting 37-percent from beyond-the-arc, which was second-best in the league.
Wyoming shot 40-percent (24-60) in the win while hitting just 5-of-17 from 3-point range. However, the Lobos were held to just 32-percent (15-47) from the floor and made just 4-of-23 from beyond-the-arc. The Cowgirls enjoyed a plus-five advantage on the boards and outscored UNM 38-20 in points in the paint. Wyoming committed a season-low six turnovers while New Mexico had 16 miscues, leading UW to a 17-4 advantage in points off turnovers.
"I was super happy with the way McKinley (Dickerson) came in off the bench tonight," said Heather Ezell.
"It was right from the get-go, she was in attack mode. When she got on the block and we delivered a pass to her, they couldn't stop her. We worked on defense for two days straight this week in practice, working on what we wanted to do. We tweaked some things from last time against them. Credit to our players, because I thought we executed it perfectly."
Next up is Wyoming's final road contest of the season as it travels to face Colorado State for round two of the Border War Saturday. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m., from Moby Arena.
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