Cowgirl shooters restricted themselves in the Save Mart Center Wednesday night, and faced a 67-50 loss to Fresno State.
The 17-point loss took the thunder out of the Cowgirls recent four game winning streak and placed them at 13-12 overall, 8-7 in conference play.
“Too many scoring opportunities were missed in tonight’s game,” Cowgirls head coach Joe Legerski told gowyo.com.
Junior guard Marquelle Dent led the Cowgirls with a team high of 16 points and six assists. Senior forward Kayla Woodward, fell short in the scoring column only accumulating nine points, considerably less than her 15.3 point season average. Woodward totaled four defensive rebounds as well. Sophomore center Kaylie Rader led the Cowgirls on boards with three offensive and three defensive rebounds and eight points. Senior guard Kaitlyn Mileto rang in seven points and two rebounds for Wyoming.
Fresno State took the first advantage of the contest, gaining a 10-2 lead within the first five minutes of play. Wyoming hit an early dry spell leaving them scoreless for the first four minutes before a jumper from Woodward put Wyoming in the game.
Junior guard Jordan Kelley hit a jumper 10 minutes in and was fouled by Fresno State’s senior forward Alex Sheedy for the 3-point opportunity. The good free throw brought Wyoming within four points of Fresno’s lead, 15-11.
Fresno State immediately began to pull away following a layup from Sheedy that set off a series placing 10 points between them before Wyoming could respond. A jumper from Woodward put the score at 21-13 and was the last basket for the Cowgirls over the next three minutes. In that time Fresno built a 15 point cushion between them and the Cowgirls before a layup from senior forward Jordan Sibrel put a stop to their run. The Cowgirls entered the locker rooms at halftime down by nine.
The Bulldogs maintained their advantage going into the second half 37-28. The Cowgirls attempted to cut the Bulldogs advantage in the first few minutes, managing to keep the lead in single digits before Sheedy began a 8-0 run for the Bulldogs. The remaining time in the period consisted of the Bulldogs building bigger leads and the Cowgirls cutting them down. At two different instances the Bulldogs led by as many as 20 points, the Cowgirls managed to cut that lead both times.
Fresno maintained the lead for the entire contest. Sheedy, their leading scorer, put 25 points against Wyoming. The Bulldogs field goal percentage and 3-point percentage edged out the Cowgirls by seven percent each (40 – 47.4, 30 – 37.5). From the free throw line, Wyoming went 3-6, which fell considerably short to Fresno’s 7-9 from the line, a full 27 percent better than the Cowgirls.
“I thought we played at an intense level, but it’s a steep hill to comeback from a double-digit deficit when you can’t convert on those opportunities,” coach Legerski said.
Next time out the Cowgirls will return to the Arena Auditorium to host the UNLV Lady Rebels Saturday. UNLV is on a five game winning streak, putting them at 10-5 in conference play and 13-13 overall. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.
