LARAMIE – Malene Pedersen melted into her chair for a postgame session with local media on Wednesday night.

Wyoming's star senior guard was asked how the Cowgirls pulled their fourth consecutive win from the fire.
 
"I don't know, I'm exhausted," Pedersen said. "I think it's just having whoever is on the floor stepping up when we needed to and we did that tonight. That's awesome."
 
Despite scoring only one point in the second quarter and shooting 33.3% from the field with 19 turnovers, UW rattled off the final eight points of the game to stun Fresno State 47-42 at the Arena-Auditorium.
 
A list of players came through in the clutch, but Pedersen's 3-pointer with 1:37 seconds remaining completed the late comeback.
 
UW head coach Heather Ezell exhaled after "Money Mal" delivered for the cardiac Cowgirls.
 
"For Malene that's a shot she has taken hundreds of thousands of times. For her that's high confidence," Ezell said. "She had no doubt to take that shot; she wanted that shot. It doesn't matter what happened in the first three quarters for her, I know she might not have shot the ball well, but I wouldn't want the ball in anyone else's hands at that point."
 
Moments after Pedersen's heroics, Aurore Eyango came up with a steal and layup to give the Cowgirls a 44-42 lead with 1:22 remaining. UW iced the game with two stops and three made free throws.
 
"It's great to see her step up and be more confident," Pedersen said of Eyango, who has emerged as a key role player during this recent push up the Mountain West standings. "Seeing her develop throughout the season from being a little more hesitant and not knowing where she could contribute on the team at the beginning and now you can see she plays confident, she fires us up, she's got that energy that helps us get back to it.
 
"I think it's important for some people on our team that sometimes need that tap on the shoulder to get back into it."
 
UW went 0-for-10 from the field in the second quarter and trailed 20-15 at the intermission. However, the visitors were held to 20.6% shooting, including 1-for-10 on 3s, in the first half.
 
"We talk about just forgetting it," Pedersen said of the adjustments made in the locker room. "New game. Luckily, we were only down five points so at least we didn't like throw it totally away and we had some defensive stops. We mostly just tried to turn our mindset and focus on looking forward."
 
Jane Rumpf, the reigning MW freshman of the week, had a forgettable night shooting (2-for-13) but buried a 3 to tie the score 33-33 early in the fourth quarter.
 
"It takes everyone, it takes a collective group to pull out wins when things aren't going right for some people somebody else has to step up," Ezell said. "I know Jane might not have had the best night but she also hit a couple shots that we needed at critical moments and she was still the loudest cheerleader on the bench. That's what it is really about is she's not over there sulking and going poor me. She's right there celebrating with our team."
 
The Cowgirls trailed by as many as seven points in the third quarter but a 3 by Henna Sandvik cut the deficit to 33-30 entering the final frame. The senior guard played small forward down the stretch and finished with 11 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
 
Lana Beslic made a layup in traffic to keep UW within striking distance before Pedersen's game-tying 3. The sophomore point guard also blocked a 3 on the other end after the Cowgirls clawed ahead.
 
Eyango, nicknamed "Juice," made what turned out to be the game-winning basket and finished with four points, two rebounds, two steals and an assist in 13 minutes off the bench.
 
"Crazy. I forget about the score, I forget about the time, and you've just got to focus on being present," Pedersen said of starting the 8-0 run to close the game. "It's great when shots fall and at least we stayed in our shots at the end and had great defense from Juice stepping up when we needed her to again."
 
The Cowgirls (8-12, 5-6) will try to extend their winning streak against Grand Canyon on Saturday in Phoenix (1 p.m., MW Network).
 
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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