Cowgirls Stymie Fighting Hawks to Close Non-Conference Play
Photo courtesy University of Wyoming Athletics
800th win in program history closes the year 2024
LARAMIE, Wyo. (Dec. 21, 2024) – The Wyoming Cowgirls played their first home game in a month and came out on top for a 73-41 victory Saturday over North Dakota to close out the year 2024 and the non-conference slate. The Cowgirls forced 29 Fighting Hawk turnovers and recorded a season-best 16 steals. The 16 steals are the most in a game since 2018 for UW. The win is the 800th in program history.
Wyoming jumped out to an early 8-2 lead, hitting four of its first five shots. The Cowgirls led 11-4 at the first quarter media timeout after draining a corner 3-pointer. After the timeout, the two teams traded threes before UND cut the UW lead down to 14-11 with a small run. The Cowgirls led 16-11 after one.
The two teams traded layups to begin the second quarter before Wyoming pushed the lead to double digits thanks to a 6-0 run off four consecutive UND turnovers. The lead was down to 26-19 before back-to-back layups by the Cowgirls made the score 30-19. Following the media timeout, there wasn’t a lot of scoring the rest of the half as UW took a 34-21 advantage into the locker room.
The Cowgirls started off strong in the third, much like they did in the first and extended the lead to 42-26. From there, the Fighting Hawks would cut the deficit down to just 10 prior to the media timeout. A Malene Pedersen 3-pointer ended the UND run, and it was 47-34 at the media. After the timeout, Wyoming continued to work it inside as the turnover bug hit the Fighting Hawks again and the lead was back up to 53-36. The end of the third featured a UND layup and then an Ola Ustowska 3-pointer to beat the buzzer as it was an 18-point Cowgirl lead going into the fourth.
A pair of free throws from Allyson Fertig brought the lead to 20 early in the frame. After that, a pull-up jumper and a pair at the free-throw line from Emily Mellema gave the Cowgirls a 62-38 lead with under seven minutes to play. After that stretch from Mellema, Wyoming emptied the bench and played its reserves the rest of the way. The Cowgirl reserves extended the lead even more in the game’s final minutes as they played well down the stretch.
“Yeah, I think this was one of our more complete games this season,” said Head Coach Heather Ezell postgame.
“We saw something different again, we did not expect North Dakota to come out in a zone to start. It was something we hadn’t practiced for, but I think that’s where this team is at. You can throw something like that at them and they were immediately ready to get into our zone offense and execute it.”
Tess Barnes led all scorers with 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting and a perfect 6-for-6 at the free-throw line. As a team, Wyoming shot 18-of-19 at the line while UND went 3-of-4. Fertig finished the game with 15 points and eight boards while Pedersen also closed in double figures with 13. As a team, Wyoming had 17 assists on its 25 made field goals and was led by Barnes and Mellema’s four each. Mellema also recorded a career-high six steals, which sits just outside the top-10 in program history for single-game steals.
As a team, Wyoming shot 25-of-58 (43.1-percent) from the floor and hit just 5-of-22 from three. UND shot 43-percent as well (18-for-42) but turnovers gave it 16 fewer shots. The Fighting Hawks also struggled from beyond-the-arc, making just 2-of-13. The Cowgirls had a 36-26 edge in paint points and scored 10 second-chance points to North Dakota’s two. The Cowgirls scored 29 points off those 29 UND turnovers while the Fighting Hawks scored six points on 10 Wyoming miscues.
The Cowgirls next shift their focus to Mountain West play after the New Year. Wyoming hosts Utah State at 2 p.m., on New Year's Day in the league opener.