February 19, 2020- The 12-11 Wyoming Cowgirls returned to the Arena Auditorium for a season series sweep against the 7-19 Utah State Aggies in a 64-45 win. The Cowgirls continue to push to the finish line as they added on their ninth conference win of the season with post season ahead.
Coming into the game, the Aggies came off two game losing streak, including a 61-67 loss against Colorado State. Their most recent game was against Fresno State, the 22-4 league leader, resulting in a 61-79 loss.
The Cowgirls returned back from a road trip border war 43-40 win in a highly physical game. The win handed the Rams their lowest scoring game of the season and extended the Cowgirls road game winning streak to three.
The last time the Wyoming and Utah State faced off, the Cowgirls took the game in a 65-54 win. Sophomore Tommi Olson shined in her first game as a Cowgirl, playing a career high of 39 minutes with 7 assists and 8 rebound with two steals.
The Cowgirls came out running in the first quarter with a ten point run with Sophomores Tereza Vitulova and Quinn Weidmann leading the way. However, the Cowgirls struggled behind the three, going 1 for 10 in the first quarter, but they were able to keep the Aggies to a 23.1 percent shooting average from the field.
“I wasn’t happy in the first quarter. We went from I believe attempting nine three and we finished the quarter 1 and 10.” said Coach Mattinson, “That can’t be who we are, but when we started running our offense and jump stopping, we were able to get to where we wanted to be and get our feet set.”
The pace stayed the same second quarter as the Cowgirls continued to attack the rim with a fifty percent field goal average while keeping Utah State to zero percent. The only points the Aggies were able to score were from the free throw line by going 7 for 9. Otherwise the Cowgirl defense did a good preserving the lead with 4 blocks and 12 rebounds, finishing the quarter 28-13.
“Besides fouling and putting them to the free throw line, we couldn’t have done a better job in the first half defensively.” said Coach Mattison.
The third quarter opened with the Cowgirls’ seventh foul of the game, but improved with back to back baskets from Vitulova. They improved inside the field going 7 for 11, while they still struggled behind the three. Freshman Jaeden Vaifuna led the Cowgirls in the third quarter behind the line as she went 7 for 8 with fifteen points.
The Cowgirls slowed down in the fourth quarter, scoring only six points in the matter of four minutes. They ran into foul trouble as the Aggies, who were 72.2 percent behind the line coming into the game, continued to rack up points with their free throw accuracy. Sophomore Alba Sanchez Romos went on a run, making eight points within the fourth quarter complete with two back to back threes. It would make for her eighth double digit game of the season.
After a game high of 13 points against CSU, Weidemann continued to extend her double digit score to 11 with ten points accompanied with 2 rebounds and 1 block. Olson would also finish with only 2 points, but completed 10 assists, a career high for the Cowgirl after coming off a career high of 10 points against CSU.
“We’ve been playing faster since Tommi. We got to let Tommi do what Tommi does.” said Coach Mattinson, “She just plays so hard. Not only her steals, but her one field goal tonight. What that does for us is take a lot of the pressure off of the rest.”
The Cowgirls beat the Aggies 64-45, keeping the Aggies below their game point average of 65.9 points. The Cowgirls will face the Air Force Falcons next in Arena Auditorium this Saturday, February 22nd as they narrow in the Mountain West Championships in the first week of March.
