Cowgirls Travel to The Pit Wednesday

Tilt with New Mexico set for 7 p.m.

LARAMIE, Wyo. (Jan. 6, 2025) – The Wyoming Cowgirls hit the road again with a Wednesday evening trip against New Mexico. Tip time is set for 7 o’clock in “The Pit”. UW is looking to start Mountain West play 3-0 for the second consecutive season.

Wednesday’s game will be broadcast live on the Mountain West Network and can be heard across the Cowgirl Radio Network with David Settle on the call.

ABOUT THE COWGIRLS
Wyoming (8-6, 2-0 MW) is coming off a 68-59 victory Saturday at Fresno State. Tess Barnes had a monster game on both ends of the court in the victory. Barnes poured in a career-high 24 points on 9-of-16 shooting overall and 4-for-8 from 3-point range. The nine made field goals are a career-best for the Australian and the four made threes tied a season-best. Defensively, Barnes held Fresno State’s Mia Jacobs to just 3-of-12 shooting and seven points. Jacobs entered the contest tied for second in the Mountain West averaging 17.8 points per game and was making nearly two 3-pointers a contest.

Allyson Fertig also scored 20-plus in the win over the Bulldogs as she scored 21 on 9-of-11 shooting. It marks the second time this season that a pair of Cowgirls have scored 20-plus points in the same game. Wyoming has had two 20-point scorers in the same contest multiple times in a season for the first time since 2018-19.

Fertig is second in the league in scoring with 18.1 points per game while her 10 rebounds a contest leads the MW. Fertig is also first in the conference shooting 59.6-percent from the floor. Barnes and Malene Pedersen are tied for second on the team and rank just outside the top 10 averaging 11.7 points per game. Emily Mellema, meanwhile, is also scoring in double figures at 10.4 a game and is fifth in the league in assists per game (3.4) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.50). Mellema also has a team-high 25 steals this season.

As a team, Wyoming is averaging 64.6 points per game and has a plus-6.1 scoring margin. The Cowgirl defense is tied for the league lead allowing just 58.6 points per contest. The Cowgirls are second in the conference in field goal shooting at 43.7-percent on the year and is third with a 1.07 assist-to-turnover ratio. UW’s 14.9 assists per game are the fourth-most in the Mountain West.

SCOUTING NEW MEXICO
New Mexico is led by a dynamic scoring duo in Destinee Hooks and Viane Cumber, who are averaging 16.9 and 16 points per game, respectively. The duo ranks fourth and fifth, respectively in the Mountain West in scoring and are the highest-scoring combined duo in the league. Alyssa Hargrove is averaging a team-best 3.5 assists and 2.4 steals per game and is tied for second on the team with 20 made 3-pointers. Hulda Joaquim’s 7.4 rebounds a contest leads the Lobos. Cumber is making 2.5 3-pointers a contest on over 35-percent shooting from beyond-the-arc.

The Lobos are averaging 71.4 points per game, a mark that ranks second in the conference. UNM is shooting a league-leading 44.3-percent from the floor overall and 33-percent from 3-point land. Lobo opponents are averaging 64.5 points per game on 39-percent shooting from the floor and 31.3-percent from beyond-the-arc. New Mexico has a plus-five advantage on the boards this season and are forcing opponents into over 17 turnovers a game.

SERIES HISTORY AGAINST NEW MEXICO
New Mexico leads the all-time series, 46-40 and has a three-game winning streak of late in the series. The Cowgirls have won 11 contests in Albuquerque in series history, and last won on the road in February of 2022. In four career games against UNM, Malene Pedersen is averaging 13.8 points per game on 59-percent shooting from the floor.