Bas­ket­ball Sea­son Ends in Wyoming

Chaun­dra Sewell goes for a loose ball as it hov­ers over head. (John McKnight/LFP)

Thurs­day was a sad day in Laramie as the Cow­girl Bas­ket­ball sea­son came to an end. The Cow­girls hosted the Col­orado Buf­faloes who were a lit­tle more than Wyoming could han­dle. This sea­son had a sim­i­lar end­ing to last year when the Cow­girls fell to BYU. This was the sec­ond straight year the Cow­girls made the WNIT. In both sea­sons the Cow­girls played well in the tour­na­ment but the third round proved too much. Although the sea­son is now over the Cow­girls should have no regrets; mak­ing the WNIT is a great accom­plish­ment and mak­ing the third round is very impressive.

… Con­tinue Reading

Wyoming Wins Bat­tle of Cowgirls

In a bat­tle of Cow­girls Wyoming came out with a great win. Wyoming took on the Okla­homa State Cow­girls in the sec­ond round of the WNIT where they came up with a close win. Okla­homa State got a first round win over Pep­per­dine and although it was a good win it meant they had to come to Laramie. Wyoming destroyed Port­land State in the first round in front of a large enough crowd to give them another home game. Okla­homa State had a good sea­son before con­fer­ence play started where they then strug­gled. Wyoming had a great sea­son but came up short of mak­ing the big dance but they are look­ing to show they still have game.

The game started with Randi hit­ting a three point shot to give Wyoming a lead. OSU answered by mak­ing the next two bas­kets tak­ing the lead. Wyoming then went on a run to give them a small cush­ion but against a good OSU team it would not be safe. OSU con­tin­ued to fight but most of the first half was dom­i­nated by Wyoming. With 5:16 left in the half Aubrey got a layup to put Wyoming up 16. Then with 3:06 left Wyoming still had a 16 point lead but this is when OSU started to make a come­back. They ended the half on an 8–0 run to drop the deficit to eight points. OSU con­tin­ued this run to start the sec­ond half where they went on 9–0 run. This gave OSU a one point lead but Wyoming was not ready for their sea­son to end. It was not long before Wyoming was back on top which got the crowd back into the game. The sec­ond half was a bat­tle as the lead changed eight times and the game was tied four times. Both teams played tough ball in the sec­ond half but when it mat­tered Wyoming held the lead. With a lit­tle over a minute left in the game Wyoming was up by nine but OSU was not going to give up. They hit back to back threes to get within three points, Wyoming then made 2–4 free throws but OSU answered with another three. By this time there was only 26 sec­onds left which meant OSU was forced to foul. Wyoming ended the game with Hillary mak­ing two free throws to give them a four point win.

… Con­tinue Reading

Cow­girls smoke Port­land State 79–41

The  Wyoming Cow­girls took on Port­land State in the first round of the 2011 WNIT, fin­ish­ing with a 79–41 lead over the Vikings. The cru­cial fan atten­dance in the dou­ble A last night was 2914; secur­ing that the 2^nd round will be played at home against Okla­homa State (Mon. 7PM).

Chaun­dra Sewell gets fouled by Port­land State’s Stephanie Egwu­atu, Egwu­atu racked up 4 fouls against the Cow­girls. (John McKnight/LFP)

Ash­ley Sick­les fights for a loose ball dur­ing the first round of the WNIT against Port­land State. (John McKnight/LFP)

Aubrey Van­diver moves past a Viking defender for a layup, Van­diver fin­ished the game with 20 points (John McKnight/LFP).Wyoming Asso­ciate Head Coach Ger­ald Mat­tin­son dis­cusses Port­lands defence with play­ers on the bench. (John McKnight/LFP)

Wyoming Asso­ciate Head Coach Ger­ald Mat­tin­son dis­cusses Port­lands defence with play­ers on the bench. (John McKnight/LFP)

Cow­girls Fall to the Lobos

The Wyoming Cow­girls fall to the New Mex­ico Lobos for the first time this sea­son. Wyoming beat the Lobos in both reg­u­lar sea­son meet­ing but it is hard to take down a team three times in a year. The Cow­girls got a first round bye while the Lobos had to play. New Mex­ico beat the Aztecs in the first round and this extra game could have helped them get a vic­tory against the Cow­girls. It is hard to say whether it is bet­ter to have the bye or an extra game but in this case the bye did not help Wyoming. This was not only New Mexico’s first win against Wyoming this sea­son but it was also their first MWC win over the Cow­girls in three attempts in tour­na­ment play. The Cow­girls have strug­gled in MWC tour­na­ment play while the Lobos have done well; this is their ninth semi-finals appear­ance in 11 years.

The game started slowly for both teams as nei­ther team was able to get shoots to fall. Both teams were get­ting good looks but nei­ther team had luck. It was not until the 15:47 mark that any points were scored. Pat­ter­son got a fast break layup to break the scor­ing drought and put the Lobos on top. Aubrey answered with a layup to tie the game but New Mex­ico quickly took the lead back. Hillary then made a three to give Wyoming a one point lead. The teams looked well matched as the half con­tin­ued. With 7:50 left in the half the Lobos went on a 6–0 run to put them up 14–7. Wyoming answered and was able to tie the game for a sec­ond time. The rest of the half was close as the teams both played tough. The first half ended with New Mex­ico up four but it was a low scor­ing half at 29–25. The sec­ond half did not start very well for the Cow­girls and they fell fur­ther behind the Lobos. New Mex­ico started the half on an 11–3 run which put them up 40–28. This run came to an end when Bec hit a deep three giv­ing the Cow­girls some life. Wyoming con­tin­ued to bat­tle but the strug­gled to close the deficit. Late in the half Wyoming got back into the game and got the lead down to three. Since there was only three and a half min­utes left it started to look like the end could be a thriller. The Cow­girls did not give up but were unable to take the lead back. The Lobos won the game with a final score of 67–61. … Con­tinue Reading

Cow­girls End Reg­u­lar Sea­son 3^rd in MWC

Sat­ur­day marked the end of the reg­u­lar sea­son for the Wyoming Cow­girls. Since it was senior night it was more emo­tional than usual. Before the game all four seniors were hon­ored. The AA had more than 4900 peo­ple who gave each senior a stand­ing ova­tion. Although every­body was happy to honor Randi, Jade, Hillary and Aubrey they were all sad that these four girls are fin­ish­ing their careers at Wyoming. Senior night is always a day of mixed emo­tions but one thing never changes, every­body always wants a win. Unfor­tu­nately for the Cow­girls they hosted con­fer­ence lead­ing BYU their last game.

The game started a lit­tle rough with Hillary pick­ing up a quick foul send­ing Ham­son to the line where she made both shots. Jade quickly answered with a layup to tie the game. BYU then went on a 17–3 run which is not some­thing that usu­ally hap­pens to the Cow­girls at home. Wyoming did not give up at this point and pre­vented the Cougars from scor­ing for almost seven min­utes while putting up 12 points. This 12 point run got the Cow­girls within two points but BYU will not miss for­ever. The Cougars started scor­ing again but it was alright since the Cow­girls stayed with them. With 3:18 left in the half Hillary made two free throws to get the team within one. Then with 2:44 left Aubrey made a layup giv­ing the Cow­girls the lead but it did not last long. Hall drained a three to go back up by two. BYU ended the half on an 8–2 run giv­ing them a five point half­time lead. The sec­ond half started with Hillary mak­ing a three which was the team’s first shot from deep. A minute later Aubrey made the sec­ond bas­ket in the half to tie the game with a layup.BYU is a good team and the play by the Cow­girls had them a lit­tle wor­ried so they started to step it up a notch. For the Cow­girls this was not good as it would be the last tie of the game and BYU took over. Wyoming con­tin­ued to play hard keep­ing the deficit under ten for the major­ity of the half. With 6:34 left in the half BYU took a ten point lead which got worse with time. Free throws got it back down to eight twice but after the sec­ond time BYU ran away with the game. With the game out of reach Wyoming took the starters out giv­ing the crowd a chance to honor the seniors one last time. As the seniors left the court the fans gave them all another stand­ing ova­tion. The game ended with Wyoming down 16 but it was closer than their last meeting.

This was not the best game for the Cow­girls but foul trou­ble was part of the rea­son for that. Chaun­dra ended the game with four fouls and jade fin­ished with three. Even though both play­ers were on the floor 39 min­utes they had to play less aggres­sive so they could stay in the game. BYU faced foul trou­ble as well since the offi­cials were keep­ing play clean. With the tal­ent both teams have it was impor­tant to keep the game clean to pre­vent the rivalry from get­ting out of hand. Aubrey and Hillary had big games on senior night, these two play­ers accounted for 30 of the teams points. Hillary had 14 points, five rebounds, two assists and two blocks. It would have been nice for Aubrey to end the sea­son with another double-double but she came up a lit­tle short. She still had a good game with 16 points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals. Even with Chaun­dra get­ting into foul trou­ble she still had nine points and six rebounds.

BYU is a good all around team which means they are good on both sides of the ball. The final stats show that their defense was tough. The Cow­girls had more assists but they were forced to make their own shots more than usual. Another thing that stood out was that the Cow­girls did not shoot the ball as well as they usu­ally do. They were held to 0–11 from deep in the first half and 2–19 on the game. The Cow­girls usu­ally do really well shoot­ing the ball from three point land so it is sur­pris­ing that BYU pre­vented them from hit­ting these shots. BYU shot the ball bet­ter from all places on the floor which it is uncom­mon for a vis­i­tor to shoot the ball bet­ter than the Cow­girls in the AA. Shoot­ing per­cents was one of the biggest fac­tors in this game since Wyoming kept most of the stats close. All in all the Cow­girls did pretty well in this game; even though they did not win they played tough they just had a bad shoot­ing night.

The Cow­girls ended the reg­u­lar sea­son 22–7 over­all and 12–4 in MWC play. The Moun­tain West has nine teams and although Wyoming had four losses they came to only two teams. This was a good sea­son for the Cow­girls as they end the reg­u­lar sea­son in third place in the MWC. BYU is leav­ing the con­fer­ence at the end of the sea­son which will give Wyoming a bet­ter chance to end higher next sea­son. TCU who gave Wyoming their only other two con­fer­ence losses will be leav­ing after next sea­son which means in two years the Cow­girls will have a great chance to dom­i­nate MWC play. No mat­ter how the reg­u­lar sea­son is looked at Wyoming had a great year, more than 20 wins and only three losses at home. The Cow­girls will get a first round bye in the con­fer­ence tour­na­ment giv­ing them a bet­ter chance to advance. With the final tour­na­ment seed­ing the Cow­girls will have a chance to face both teams that beat them. They will face TCU in their sec­ond game and if they make it to the cham­pi­onship game they could be fac­ing BYU again. It is hard to beat a good team three times in a sea­son which means the Cow­girls have a chance to win it all.

Cow­girls Sweep UNLV

Sat­ur­day the Cow­girls wel­comed the UNLV Rebels into the AA. Wyoming was look­ing for the sweep this sea­son while UNLV was look­ing to pick up their fourth MWC win. The two teams faced off in Vegas on Jan­u­ary 26^th where the Cow­girls came away with a 69–61 win. Before Saturday’s game Wyoming held their annual Walk for Women which brought in a larger crowd. Over 4300 fans were in atten­dance at the game and with a crowd of that size the Cow­girls knew they had to put on a show. After the game was over fans left very sat­is­fied with a 21 point win. When Wyoming to the floor they were ready to play and they gave the fans a great game scor­ing 77 points. … Con­tinue Reading

95% From the Line Leads to a Win

Wednes­day night the Cow­girls hosted the Utah Utes, pos­si­bly for the last time. The two teams faced each other Jan­u­ary 15^th and Wyoming took a 55–48 win. A win on the road did not guar­an­tee a home win but it did mean the Cow­girls were favored to win. Utah is sit­ting in the mid­dle of the con­fer­ence and does not want to leave the Moun­tain West on a bad note. Wyoming did not want the Utes to steal a win in their last meet­ing. The rest of the MWC wants to send Utah out with as few wins as they can to show them what they will be missing.

Utah entered the game look­ing for revenge for the loss the Cow­girls handed them on their own court. The start of the game looked like they may get what they were look­ing for as they got out to an early lead. Wyoming tied the game four times before they were able to get on top. Even though Utah held the lead for the first 13 min­utes they were never up by more than five. With 7:17 left in the half Randi hit her only shot from deep to give the Cow­girls their first lead of the game. They played well for the next few min­utes giv­ing them a seven point lead. Utah was not ready to lay down and die as they went on a run to tie the game for the last time. With 1:41 left Aubrey drained two free throws tak­ing the lead for the rest of the game. Jade made a three with 1:08 left mark­ing the last bas­ket of the half and giv­ing Wyoming a five point cush­ion enter­ing the half. The sec­ond half started sim­i­lar to the first half; Utah came out with fire. They cut the lead to one a few times but Wyoming was just too strong to over­come. Chaun­dra picked up to early fouls in the sec­ond half. She was taken out of the game with four fouls and even though she is a vital part of the team she did not return. Bec came into the game for Chaun­dra know­ing she would have to step up her play­ing. As with a num­ber of games the Cow­girls have played this sea­son the sec­ond half was more phys­i­cal than the first. This hurt the Cow­girls with Chaun­dra get­ting into foul trou­ble but the Utes were hurt much more. Although only two play­ers for Utah got into foul trou­ble they still suf­fered since they con­tin­u­ally sent the Cow­girls to the free throw line.

… Con­tinue Reading

Senior Lead­er­ship Brings Cow­girls a Win

The sec­ond half of con­fer­ence play has begun and the games are only get­ting more dif­fi­cult. The Cow­girls hosted the New Mex­ico Lobos for their sec­ond meet­ing of the sea­son. On Jan­u­ary 8^th the Cow­girls went to New Mex­ico and came home with a ten point win. The Lobos defeated TCU on the road not long ago so Wyoming knew this would not be an easy game. As the Cow­girls expected this was a tough fought game but senior lead­er­ship allowed Wyoming to win.

The Cow­girls started strong get­ting out to a 9–2 lead. Wyoming then took a hit when Hillary picked up her sec­ond foul. Coach Leg­erski decided to pull her know­ing she would be needed in the sec­ond half. Ash­ley came into the game being asked to play a longer stretch than she is used to fac­ing. Some play­ers may fold under this pres­sure but not Ash­ley, she stepped up the play. With Hillary out the Cow­girls were miss­ing their lead­ing scorer. Jade and Aubrey both stepped up know­ing some­body had to put points on the board. The Cow­girls played tough but so did the Lobos which made for a fun first half for the fans. At the 5:28 mark Lau­ren Tay­lor hit a three for New Mex­ico to tie the game. … Con­tinue Reading

Aztecs Fall to the Cowgirls

Chaun­dra Sewell attempts a jump shot as Jes­sika Bradley and Paris John­son reach in. (Jeremy Stegall/LFP)

The Cow­girls get a big win Sat­ur­day against Paris John­son and the San Diego State Aztecs. San Diego State came into the game look­ing for a win after los­ing their last two games. Wyoming entered the game car­ry­ing momen­tum after win­ning their pre­vi­ous four games. The Cow­girls knew they would have to work hard to win the game since the Aztecs have a tal­ented team. Paris John­son is a pow­er­ful player down low which caused a few prob­lems for Wyoming. The match up of Hillary and Paris put two of the best play­ers down low against each other. Hillary had to fight to get good looks around the bas­ket which caused her to have a poor shoot­ing night. She usu­ally shoots the ball really well but in this game she was forced to take a num­ber of con­tested shots but still made a third of her attempts. The game started with the Cow­girls get­ting out to an early lead. Wyoming scored six points before giv­ing up a bas­ket to the Aztecs. The Cow­girls set the pace of the game early and was able to run the ball not let­ting San Diego State set up their defense. As the half pro­gressed the speed slowed down but Wyoming was in charge most of the half. With under eight min­utes to go the Aztecs went on a run which resulted in them tak­ing a two point lead. As Cow­girl fans know a deficit that small is noth­ing to worry about and Wyoming was back on top a few min­utes later. The Cow­girls ended the half on a 13–5 run giv­ing them a 36–30 lead. In the sec­ond half the Cow­girls strug­gled mak­ing it hard for them to stay on top. Wyoming did not shoot the ball very well in the sec­ond half but they did not let the Aztecs shoot much bet­ter. The sec­ond half was more of a defen­sive bat­tle with both teams lock­ing down. The Aztecs are an ath­letic team so the Cow­girls used a zone defense to make Aztecs work for all of their points. Wyoming ran a zone defense that they do not use much but has proven effec­tive against San Diego State. Both teams played aggres­sive for the whole game but the sec­ond half was way more phys­i­cal. This phys­i­cal play seemed to hurt the Aztecs with the Cow­girls forc­ing them to foul 16 times in the half. Since the Cow­girls did not shoot the ball well the con­stant trips to the line helped keep Wyoming in the lead. With just under two min­utes left in the game John­son fouled out giv­ing the Cow­girls a slight advan­tage. At this point Wyoming already was up by six so they just needed to run the clock. The Aztecs con­tin­ued to foul in hopes of get­ting back in the game; this did not work and the Cow­girls ended up with an eight point victory.

Wyoming put up a per­for­mance that fans expect in the first half shoot­ing 53.6%. They shot the ball well from all spots on the floor and ended the half shoot­ing 44.4% from deep. At home the Cow­girls usu­ally shoot the ball really well and that was the story in the first half. The sec­ond half was a dif­fer­ent story and the Cow­girls strug­gled to get shots to fall. They only made three field goals and two of them were from behind the three point line. A lot of credit goes to the Aztecs for mak­ing Wyoming only shoot 15.8% in a half on their own floor. Even with the Cow­girls only mak­ing three shots in the half they still got a win. The win came from the free throw line since the Cow­girls had 25 attempts in the sec­ond half. Wyoming missed ten of these free shots but the 15 they made kept them on top. The Cow­girls held the Aztecs to 23.3% shoot­ing in the half which also con­tributed to their win. A shock­ing fac­tor in the game was that Hillary only got one block. She had her hands in the face of shoot­ers all game which led to a num­ber of misses which in the end are almost as good as blocks. Four of the five starters for the Cow­girls recorded dou­ble digit scor­ing so the points were dis­trib­uted between the four. Aubrey led the team with 20 points and also got 10 rebounds giv­ing her a double-double. Aubrey hav­ing a big game was good since she strug­gled in Vegas. Jade also had a big game with ten points, three assists, two blocks and three steals. As usual the Cow­girls had good ball move­ment and ended the game with 14 assists on 18 bas­kets. The fact that Wyoming only made 18 bas­kets is sur­pris­ing but in a defen­sive bat­tle like this game bas­kets are hard to get. It would have been bet­ter to have seen the Cow­girls shoot bet­ter but they found a way to win which is the impor­tant thing.

The matchup between Hillary and Paris always makes for a good game. In this game Hillary won the scor­ing bat­tle but Paris got more blocks. Paris is a good player and some teams will try to stay away from her but not the Cow­girls. Wyoming kept going at her which caused her to pick up four sec­ond half fouls and even­tu­ally foul out. The Cow­girls have faced a num­ber of good play­ers but they never back down. They are good at con­tain­ing star play­ers and are always up for the chal­lenge. Wyoming has the star power to play with all teams they face. They have proven all sea­son that they do not lack talent.

42 Point Win for the Cowgirls

On Sat­ur­day the Cow­girls wel­comed the Air Force Fal­cons into Laramie. The Fal­cons just came off of a big win against San Diego State and hoped to bring the momen­tum into the AA. Wyoming had dif­fer­ent plans for the game; the Cow­girls wanted to con­tinue their home court dom­i­nance. Air Force came out quick to gain an early lead but a lead is never safe against the Cow­girls at home. It was not long before Wyoming was back on top with a one point lead. The Fal­cons strug­gled to make shots but at the same time they kept Wyoming from shoot­ing many shots. The first half was a defen­sive bat­tle for both teams. Wyoming shut down the Fal­cons not let­ting them score for ten min­utes, dur­ing this time the Cow­girls built on their lead. As the half neared the end the Fal­cons began to foul more fre­quently; these fouls seemed to be caused by frus­tra­tion. The story of the first half was Hillary Carl­son as she could not be stopped. Wyoming dom­i­nated the stats in the first half and it had a lot to do with Carl­son hav­ing a great game. The sec­ond half started with Hillary con­tin­u­ing her dom­i­nance down low. The Cow­girls ran the floor when they could and set­tled down when they needed to. The Cow­girls set the pace and made the Fal­cons play Wyoming’s game. Air Force tried to con­trol the speed of the game but it only led to turnovers. Wyoming opened a com­mand­ing lead so all of the starters got to take a break and give some of the other girls more play­ing time. At this point in the game Wyoming slowed the speed of the game but still forced the Fal­cons to play Wyoming’s speed. Wyoming may have set the speed in the sec­ond half but Air Force made it a phys­i­cal game. This was not a bad thing for the Cow­girls since they can play a phys­i­cal game when they want to and they never back down. … Con­tinue Reading