Kendyll Ferrall
Kferral1@uwyo.edu
Toppling the Mountain West’s third ranked team after a week off, the University of Wyoming Cowgirls dominated the Boise State Broncos Saturday afternoon in the Arena Auditorium. Four Cowgirls scored in the double-digits to lift Wyoming to its 82-58 victory.
“I thought today’s game came down to the great start that we had,” UW head coach Joe Legerski said.
Making up for their nine-point loss during the team’s last meeting in January, Wyoming was quick to grab the lead with a big three from sophomore forward Natalie Baker 15-seconds into the first quarter.
“We knew, to be able to get Natalie onto the perimeter was something that we were looking to do,” Legerski said. “Natalie is very aggressive with the basketball, got off us to a good start and then it just seemed like we had tremendous balance today.”
Wyoming put up eight more unanswered points before Boise made an appearance on the scoreboard nearly six minutes into the game. Points from Baker and sophomore guard Liv Roberts gave Wyoming a nine-point advantage heading into the second quarter.
“We just came out and were wanting to play today,” Baker said. “I think you could see that we came out right away and were playing great defense and playing as a team.”
Assisted by Roberts, sophomore forward Marleah Campbell kicked off the second quarter with back-to-back three’s. Campbell led the Cowgirls in scoring during the second quarter with eight points and recorded a career-high 16 points coming off the bench.
“I thought Marleah, first and foremost, really stepped up off the bench, made big three’s to begin with, not only that but got to the foul line,” Legerski said. “For her to have 16 points speaks volumes of how she played with some confidence and that’s something that we’ve talked about all year long.”
Holding on tight to their lead, the Cowgirls added 17 more points to their score in the second period, outscoring the Broncos by four. Boise trailed by 13-points heading into the locker room.
Roberts was first to add to Wyoming’s advantage with a quick jumper 20-seconds into the second half. A trip to the line by Roberts added two more points to the Cowgirl’s lead to bring it up to 20.
Freshman forward Marta Gomez led both teams in scoring during the third quarter with eight points and four defensive boards. Wyoming’s bench contributed seven points, five points fewer than Boise’s total scoring in the quarter.
Wyoming proved its dominance during the third quarter with multiple six and seven point runs giving the Cowgirls a 30-point advantage. Outscoring Boise 29-12 in the quarter, Wyoming shot 64 percent in the paint and 57 percent from outside. The Broncos shot 29 percent from the field and 14 percent from the perimeter.
Surprisingly absent form the floor and the scoreboard, senior guard Marquelle Dent saw 19-minutes of playing time Saturday, recording no points, three boards and three assists. A nod to Wyoming’s growing maturity, the Cowgirls enjoyed one of their highest-margin victories without the team’s leader.
Wyoming made close to half its in-paint shots, going 26-55 (47.3 percent), 10-24 (41.7 percent) from beyond the arc and 20-25 from the line (80 percent). Baker led the Cowgirls in scoring with 19 points and seven rebounds followed by Roberts with 15 and Gomez with 10.
The Cowgirls will travel to Fresno tomorrow to take on the Bulldogs. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m.
