Richard Anderson photo
UW's Megan McGuffey looks to get past North Dakota's Kayla Bagaason Thursday night. At bottom, left, is Elisabeth Dissen, Emma Langford and Jade Kennedy.
Wyoming-North Dakota box score
By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org
Sophomore Randi Richardson made the local faithful jump for joy when she nailed two free throws that put Wyoming at the century mark, as the Cowgirls ran past North Dakota 100-75 Thursday night in the Arena-Auditorium.
But it was the sizzling 3-point shooting in the first half by freshman Emma Langford and the strong inside presence of senior Elisabeth Dissen and sophomore Jade Kennedy that got the Cowgirls to that point.
“This is the first time a Wyoming team of mine has scored 100 points,” Wyoming coach Joe Legerski said. “When there are a lot of possessions, we’re going to shoot the ball and we’re going to take our chances up and down the floor.”
It’s not the first time the Cowgirls have scored 100 -- they beat Sacramento State 101-47 in 2001 and also blasted Colorado State 117-57 in 1992.
After slow start, though, it turned out to be quite an offensive performance by Wyoming. For a while, it looked like a record-breaking night for Langford, who only played her third game as a Cowgirl on Thursday.
Langford keyed a 28-4 run in the first half (16 points) and scored 24 in the first 20 minutes, hitting 6 of 7 3-pointers. She didn’t shoot much in the second half, but didn’t need to as the Wyoming inside game took over. She finished with 26 points.
Langford scored 31 points in her first two games and that helped her with her confidence Thursday night.
“These girls kept getting me the ball and I just kept shooting … it worked out well,” she said.
Legerski said that Langford is a young player, but very talented.
“That 24 points at half, not only the points, but she was 6-of-7 from 3,” Legerski said. “Then she started finding people with assists. That’s the biggest adjustment that Emma ha shad to make. The first couple of games she had a great deal of turnovers, tonight Emma steps up with six assists and one turnover. What a ratio.”
While Langford scored well in her first two games, she also turned the ball over 13 times, compared to just seven assists.
Legerski calls her the best passer on the team.
“With her size being 6-foot-2, she can see greatly over the playing surface,” he said. “When she puts it on the floor, she has an understanding of where people need to be and she already knows who she is looking for. She was able to find people tonight. There was none better than when the shot clock was winding down and she drove to the middle and found our post for an easy basket. That showed a great deal of maturity and confidence.”
In the second half, Dissen and Kennedy shined. Kennedy finished with a career-high 16 points, while Dissen added 15. The two combined to hit 13-of-18 from the field. As a team, Wyoming was 34-of-65 from the field (53 percent), including 11 of 26 3-pointers (42 percent).
“Once again, we needed to score in the post and we were able to start finding them when we started knocking down shots.” Legerski said. “Elisabeth goes 7-for-7, and the big part is making those shots. Jade Kennedy really stepped up big tonight and really contributed to what we were trying to get done.”
Dissen credited the Wyoming outside game for setting up the post.
“Everyone was shooting it well, especially Emma in the first half,” Dissen said. “They had to get out on our guards and it just opened the middle. We got amazing passes and Jade did a great job.”
Senior Megan McGuffey, who had 11 points and a team-high eight assists, said their zone principles can lead to big games like this.
“Everyone was in the right spot. Emma does a great job of finding the open spots. Fortunately, she was open and we got the shots to go down,” McGuffey said. “We’ve only played three games, but I think people have done a great job. We’re learning all of the time.”
Now if Legerski could only get a little more consistency out of Langford, he says in jest.
“I’m going to ask Emma, ‘You get 24 in the first half and I am going to expect a little more than two points in the second half,’” Legerski said with a laugh. “That is a little tough as a coach. She has a situation where, on some night, she can put 30-40 on the board and really get her assist ratio going.”
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