The cowgirls played Pepperdine in the sweet sixteen Thursday in Laramie with Marta Gomez starting the girls off with a 2 point shot. They kept great defense to keep the waves slow to start. With five minutes left the teams struggled to shoot tonight has the Cowgirls shot only 2 for 8 from the paint and then Pepperdine shot 4 for 8 from the paint. The defense went strong at 2 mins, the cowgirls picked it up on offense when they needed it. With 2 seconds left Taylor Rusk made a 2 point to bring the score cowgirls 15-8. Cowgirls shot 6 of 15 from the paint an Pepperdine shot 4 of 17 from the paint.
In the second quarter, Quinn gave the Cowgirls made a 3-point shot to start the quarter. As the clock runs down to 4:50 the score comes to 21 to 13. Cowgirls are getting lucky as everything is going their way so far. Malia, Bambrick makes her first 3 pointer of the night for Pepperdine at 3 minutes left. The Waves are still having trouble with trying to make get the shots to go in. Bailee cotton is showing no mercy when its coming to defense as she is absolutely dominating the court, letting no one drive in to the basket and blocking shots from getting into the basket. As there is only 20 seconds left the Cowgirls go strong on defense not letting the Waves get to the basketball. Rakovic ends the 2nd quarter with a made layup at .2 seconds left. The score at half time is Wyoming 30, Pepperdine 24.
With 8 mins left in the third quarter in the Waves begin to come back, they got the score 31-29. Yasm going hard on offense bringing in some points to help the Waves come back. With the crowd on their feet, the game became tied at 39-39 with a minute and 30 seconds left in the third quarter. Pepperdine came out of a timeout and made a 3-pointer by Rose Pflug to bring the score to 41-42 Pepperdine on top. The Cowgirls came back and made a layup to end the quarter and get the lead back, Wyoming 43, Pepperdine 42.
“Karla was a big team effort and we attacked when we needed to attack.” Said Coach Joe Legerski.
The fourth quarter started with a lot of energy from the crowd as the cowgirls defense and offense are coming all together at 9 mins in. But the Waves were not backing down as they made 4 points within 30 seconds bringing the score tied at 47-47. As the times closes down, both teams are turning up their defense. Karla Erjavec brings in a huge and far 3 pointer to bring the score 52-47. The Waves are having trouble trying to contain the cowgirls offense as the cowgirls are coming into sync. With 1 minute left the cowgirls are up by only two bring the score 60-58 as Bailee Cotton is fouled by Lindsay Skye from Pepperdine. Bailey misses both of her shot on the free throw line as Pepperdine takes a full timeout with 36.6 seconds left in the game. The Waves come back with a jumper tying the score 60-60 with 25.8 seconds left. Karla gets fouled and makes 1 of two shots leaving the score at 61-60, with 9.4 seconds left. The cowgirls are playing tough defense with 6 seconds left as the Waves are trying to make a sore to win. With 3 seconds left the cowgirls hold their ground ending the score at a close 61-60. The Wyoming cowgirls are going to the elite 8. The cowgirls ended at 46.3% on the court as the Pepperdine Waves ended with 39.3% The girls basketball team had the tenth largest crowd in the program history tonight. Bailee leading the cowgirls in points by ending with 15 points as Pepperdine’s Yasm Robinson-Bacote leads the waves with 26 points.
“We have a talented team and to be able to have freshman on the court and get the job done, our team is a family team and a Wyoming team.” Said Coach Joe Legerski.
The Cowgirls will play Arizona at Arizona on Sunday, March 31, at 3 pm.
