Cowgirls Impress in Final Exhibition

Heather Ezell Era officially tips November 11 at North Dakota
LARAMIE, Wyo. (Nov. 5, 2022) – The Wyoming Cowgirls outscored Sioux Falls 53-21 in the second half and shot nearly 62-percent from the field for the game on their way to an impressive 87-40 win, Saturday in Laramie in the Cowgirls’ final exhibition contest before the regular season tips.
USF jumped out to an early 5-2 lead, but a Malene Pedersen three-point play knotted the contest up at 5-5 with 7:11 left in the first. Much like in the first exhibition against Colorado Christian, both teams got out to slow starts offensively as things were tied at 8-8 at the first quarter media. Out of the timeout, a Pedersen 3-pointer gave the Cowgirls their first lead since 2-0. After a Cougar 3-pointer knotted things back up, three consecutive hoops in the paint forced a Sioux Falls timeout with 1:45 left in the first and Wyoming leading 17-11. UW held a 19-13 lead after one.
The second quarter began with the Cowgirls continuing to find their offensive rhythm as they expanded the lead to 28-13 to begin the frame, leading to another USF timeout with 7:35 left in the half. Things cooled a bit for Wyoming after the timeout but still led 32-17 at the second quarter media. The Cowgirls maintained their edge the rest of the half and carried a 34-19 lead into the locker room. USF ended the half going just 1-of-10.
After Sioux Falls made the first basket of the second half, the Cowgirls countered with a 12-0 run and held their biggest lead of the game to that point, 46-21. Wyoming led 48-26 with 4:45 left in the third. Out of the timeout, UW continued its strong offensive flow as Emily Mellema and Marta Savic both got old-fashioned three-point plays to extend the lead out to 54-26 with just over 3:30 to play in the quarter. The rest of the third, the Cowgirls continued to play well on both ends of the court and led 60-28 going into the fourth. Wyoming outscored USF 26-9 in the third.
The fourth quarter went much like the third quarter did, with UW extending its lead out to as many as 48 points late in the quarter. Wyoming outscored the Cougars 27-12 in the exhibition’s final 10 minutes and cruised to victory.
Wyoming used its size advantage perfectly Saturday, outscoring USF 46-4 in the paint. Allyson Fertig led the way with 21 points on 10-of-13 shooting in just 15 minutes of action while off the bench, Savic added 13 points of her own on 6-of-7 shooting. Both Cowgirls, along with Tommi Olson, led the way with six rebounds each in the win.
“It is nice to get that inside game going,” said Head Coach Heather Ezell after the game.
“It helps open things up when we get things going down low, it opens some things on the outside, which is what happened this afternoon. Allyson got going early and they began to send extra help towards her, now our shots from the outside started to go.”
In all, four Cowgirls ended in double figures as Pedersen and Quinn Weidemann had 12 and 10, respectively. Pedersen dished-out five assists while Wiedemann added a pair of blocks. Mellema led the way with a game-high six assists.
The Wyoming defense held Sioux Falls to just 27.6-percent (16-58) shooting from the floor and a 6-for-23 clip (26.1-percent) from 3-point range. Wyoming made 10-of-21 3-pointers in the win and went a perfect 9-of-9 at the free-throw line. Both teams committed 15 turnovers in the contest, but UW capitalized more, scoring 25 points off turnovers to USF’s 11.
With their final tune-up in the books, the Cowgirls now shift their focus to the regular-season opener as they travel to face North Dakota at Noon, Mountain Time November 11.
“It will be a good test for us, said Ezell. We’ll lean on our two super seniors, Tommi and Quinn. ‘Hey nothing changes, but we’ve got to bring our own energy and be ready to go.’ It will be a good test up at North Dakota.”
“I think the girls are ready to shift into that mode of going 1-0 now. Yeah, it was good to win our exhibitions but those don’t count. I think we’re all ready for the season to get going.”