Breann Lujan-Halcon
blujanha@uwyo.edu
Cowgirls basketball left Denver with their fourth win of the season with a 75-64 victory over the Denver Pioneers Wednesday afternoon.
Senior guard Marquelle Dent led the Cowgirls with 21 points, 10 assists and six defensive rebounds, for the fourth double-double of her career. While boasting a season high in assists, her 21 points pushed her over 1,000 career points as a Cowgirl. Dent finished the night with 1,017 career points. Dent is the tenth player under Cowgirls head coach Joe Legerski to reach this milestone and the 23rd in Cowgirl history.
“Marquelle has been playing well all season,” Cowgirls head coach Joe Legerski told gowyo.com. “I knew she was only four points away from 1,000 and if we would have been at home we would have stopped the game to honor her. She leads this group and not only did she move up in points but on the all-time assist list. She is a competitor, taken on a leadership role and we are still trying to improve upon her game. With 21 points, 10 assists in 40 minutes that’s a night out for her.”
Freshman forward Marta Gomez had 17 points for the night and led on the boards with seven rebounds. Senior guard Jordan Kelley shot six for eight from the field for 13 points, 6 rebounds and three assists.
Sophomores, forward Natalie Baker and guard Skyler Snodgrass, put up 12 points from Wyoming’s bench with six points each. Baker also tallied one assist and three rebounds.
“We are trying to adapt to this group,” Coach Legerski said. “The first half DU ran a two-three zone so we ran our zone offense except we were 4-16 from beyond the arc. We had good looks but nothing seemed to be falling. In the second half, we changed to run our motion and got the ball inside and attacked the basket. We shot better from the field and from three in the half and I give credit to Marta who was able to get open.”
The Pioneers had four starters in double digits and 12 points off the bench, all which came from Jordyn Alt who was nearing a double-double.
Wyoming and Denver ran neck-and-neck on boards with 31 each but Wyoming capitalized on Denver’s turnovers, scoring 17 of their 75 points off turnovers.
The Pioneers held the lead at the end of the first quarter 13-9, their largest margin of the game. That lead quickly disappeared heading into the second period when Snodgrass hit two back-to-back threes to give the Cowgirls a two-point lead.
The Cowgirls led by as much as 13 points in the fourth quarter before sealing off the win with an 11-point advantage.
Cowgirls basketball will return home for the weekend, they will host the Montana Lady Griz Saturday in the Arena Auditorium. The Lady Griz (5-2), will travel to CSU Thursday before facing the Cowgirls on Saturday. Tip off is set for 2 p.m.
