The Cowgirls dropped a heartbreaker on Wednesday night against the Fresno State Bulldogs, 52-47.
UW had the lead the majority of the game, but weren’t able to close out the Bulldogs in the final minutes.
“One of the things we talked about to the team was defensively they did everything we asked,” head coach Joe Legerski said. “The execution was amazing on the defensive end, you give up 52 points and those are games you need to win. I thought we were solid down the stretch, but just didn’t make the shots that we had.”
Clara Tapia finished with a team-high 12 points and seven assists followed by Marta Gomez with 11 points. Marleah Campbell chipped in seven points off the bench with Liv Roberts added seven points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Wyoming shot 18-49 (37 percent) from the field and 7-19 (37 percent) from behind the arc. The Cowgirls outrebounded Fresno State, 36-28, and had 33 points off the bench.
“I thought Marleah (Campbell) gave us a big lift and played very well. Marta (Gomez) seemed to keep us in the game during the first half plus Clara (Tapia) also did some nice things,” Legerski said.
The Bulldogs were led by Candice White with a game-high 16 points followed by Bego Faz Davalos with 14 points and five rebounds. Emilie Volk had a team-high six rebounds plus eight points. Fresno State shot 16-47 (34 percent) from the field.
Coming out of halftime, Wyoming scored the four of the first six points to make it 33-27. The Bulldogs scored five of seven to close out the third quarter but the Cowgirls took a 38-37 advantage after three.
“We talked about there was a stretch in the third quarter where we had a hard time even catching the ball, had easy shots in transition and didn’t convert,” Legerski said. “When you have opportunities for easy points on the road against a quality team you have to finish those plays. This was a learning experience that we will address and hope we shoot the ball better.”
Wyoming built the lead to four to begin the fourth quarter, 44-40, with 5:06 to go. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs outscored the Cowgirls 12-3 in the final stretch of the quarter to take the 52-47 victory.
The Cowgirls will return home to close out the week against the Utah State Aggies on Saturday afternoon. The game is set for 2 p.m. at the Arena-Auditorium.
