Cowgirls Roll Past Cougars on Education Day

Wyoming scores 40 bench points in the rout

LARAMIE, Wyo. (Nov. 22, 2024) – The Wyoming Cowgirls ran away with an 80-54 victory Friday over Colorado Christian in front of over 4,000 fans in Wyoming’s annual Education Day Game. Wyoming scored a season-high 40 bench points in the win while all available Cowgirls appeared in the contest.

“I think that’s huge that we got to play everybody today and got so many contributions,” said Heather Ezell postgame.

“I said to our staff, ‘we’ve got to keep rolling with these kids because at some point they’re going to get that basket to fall and maybe that confidence takes over from there.’ We really saw that a lot today with Payton (Muma) today. Obviously, we know that McKinley (Dickerson) can score, now it’s just a matter of getting her back into playing shape. I thought we got some baskets from our bench, especially from those two, that really got us going and then that led to a difference I thought as well on the defensive end.”

Wyoming had a 13-8 lead at the first media timeout as Allyson Fertig had eight early points for the Cowgirls. After the timeout, McKinley Dickerson knocked down a 3-pointer right away, her first shot attempt of the season. The Cowgirl offense continued to click the rest of the quarter as they led 21-10 after one.

CCU came out in the second and started to find its rhythm on offense and were aided by some tough shot making, as the UW lead was cut down to just 25-21. From there, the Cowgirls responded with four consecutive layups to push the lead back up to double digits, leading to a Cougar timeout. Out of the timeout, the Cowgirl barrage continued inside, while simultaneously, the defense for Wyoming picked up as the lead was built back up to 37-22 before things slowed down the last few minutes of the half. The score was 39-24 at the break.

UW scored the first six points of the second half to push the lead to 21 early in the third. The Cowgirl lead was 47-26 with 5:36 left in the frame when CCU called a timeout. After the second media timeout later in the stanza, Payton Muma hit back-to-back 3-pointers to bring the score up to 58-29 in favor of the home team. Wyoming led 62-33 after three.

The fourth quarter was empty-the-bench time for the Cowgirls as they played the final 10 minutes with the reserves in. Wyoming got the lead up to as many as 33 in the fourth as it started to catch fire from 3-point range late. A total of 12 Cowgirls scored in the victory.

Wyoming committed just eight turnovers in the win, with only four of those coming in the game’s first three quarters. The Cowgirls shot 51.6-percent from the floor and hit nine 3-pointers. CCU was held to 38.6-percent shooting with six made threes. UW doubled-up the Cougars in paint points (44-22) and had a 13-2 advantage in second-chance points, despite recording just two more offensive rebounds. The Cowgirls also enjoyed a 19-2 scoring edge in points off turnovers on the day.

Fertig finished the day with her second double-double on the season and her third contest with 20-or-more points as she scored 22 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in just 19 minutes of action. No Cowgirl played more than 19 minutes in the victory. Emily Mellema finished with 11 points and a game-high five assists while Muma also scored 11 off the bench. Wyoming dished-out a season-high 19 assists Friday.

Next up for Wyoming will be a three-game trip to Puerto Rico over Thanksgiving for the Discover Puerto Rico San Juan Shootout. The Cowgirls will play three games in three days beginning with Drake at 11:30 a.m., Mountain Time Thanksgiving Day.