As reigning Mountain West Conference champions, the Cowgirls started the season with a win as they beat out the Colorado Christian University Cougars 106-47 in their season opener exhibition game on Friday night.
The Cowgirls and the Cougars have faced off twice previously, the last time being Wyoming’s 2019-20 season opener, which the Cowgirls won 70-31.
In the series, Wyoming has averaged 66 points per game, while holding CCU to just 32 points each in the two contests the schools have had thus far.
Overall, the Cowgirls were able to score at least 25 points per quarter.
As the game went on, the team seemingly built steam, resulting in a lay of 25 points in the first quarter, 26 in the second, 26 in the third, and 29 in the final.
“I’m pleased, obviously, that we were able to score as many points as we did,” Cowgirls head coach Gerald Mattinson said in a statement. “I think that was paramount as it was something that we struggled with last year, so that’s a plus.”
Friday night’s game had a similar outcome, thanks in part to the returning guard McKinley Bradshaw, the leading scorer for the game with 17 points.
Bradshaw was the Cowgirls’ leading scorer for the 2020-21 season as well, averaging 11.7 points per game.
UW guard Alba Sanchez Ramos and forward Grace Ellis also made productive returns since last season.
Both scored 14 points each with Ellis scoring six of the Cowgirls’ first eight points of the game.
“It’s really important that we were able to play everyone tonight,” Mattinson said. “We’ve got enough minutes of tape on them now, so that we can go in and go ‘OK, this is what you did well, this is what we need to improve on.’”
The Cowgirls’ 10 three pointers were another factor in their triple-digit final score, with an overall score rate of 10 for 22.
Bradshaw led the team with three for five completed. Followed by guard Ola Ustowska with two, guards Tess Barnes and Ramos with two each, and guard Landri Hudson with one.
“We showed that we’ve got some multiple weapons,” Mattinson said. “We still made a lot of mistakes tonight, there’s still some things we need to clean up before the next exhibition and then definitely clean it up by the first game.
The Cowgirls have one week to make final adjustments before the start of their regular season with one more exhibition game slated before the start of the regular season.
The Cowgirls will next play another home game on Friday, Nov. 5 against the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs.
