Cowgirls rally past Boise State

Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming sophomore guard Randi Richardson looks to get past a Boise State player Tuesday in the Cowgirls 62-55 come-from-behind win.

Wyoming-Boise State box score

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

If Wyoming coach Joe Legerski knew that every time his team would fall behind, it would come back and win, there would be fewer worries on the Cowgirls bench.

But Legerski knows better. For the third straight game, the Cowgirls (3-2) dug themselves a bit of a hole. At least for two of those three games, they found a way to get out of it. On Tuesday, Wyoming did just that, stopping Boise State 62-55 in the Arena-Auditorium.

Against North Dakota last week, Wyoming falls behind by 11 before winning by 25. Against Gonzaga on Sunday, the Cowgirls trailed by 16 before coming back to cut the lead to four, only to lose by 10. Against Boise State, Wyoming found itself down by 15 in the first half and was down by 13 at halftime.

“It was a tale of two halves, there is no doubt,” Legerski said.

This is not exactly how Legerski draws things up. Just why this young Cowgirl team has a problem getting out of the gates remains to be seen. In fact, Legerski wants to know and he plans on asking them. On Tuesday night, he traced their slow start to energy … or the lack of it.

“I thought we came out, for whatever reason and played with very little energy, very little emotion,” Legerski said. “Whether that is the carry-over from Sunday’s game, whether all of the sudden you are turning around and playing almost immediately, whether they were looking forward to Thanksgiving …”

Senior forward Megan McGuffey isn’t sure what happened or why it is happening to the Cowgirls. But it is. She said it is never a good thing to be down, let along by double figures.

“Luckily in the second half, we picked up our defense and started picking up some shots,” McGuffey said.

The difference between first and second halves came on the defensive end. Legerski said they talked about coming out and extending their defense and getting into Boise State’s passing lanes. And of course, they talked about playing with some energy.

“Or you were going to come out and sit by me,” Legerski said.

The Cowgirls got the message.

“They are the only ones who could turn it around, and I thought they did a tremendous job,” he said. “When you take a look at the shooting percentages -- in the first half 45 percent from Boise, to 15 percent in the second half. I thought we really picked up the pace defensively and tried to make some things happen.”

As was the case in the previous two games, the Cowgirls had figure out how to stop their opponent before making a game of it. Wyoming did that, holding the Broncos to just four field goals in the second half that included a nearly 10-minute basket drought. Wyoming outscored Boise State 38-18 in the final 20 minutes.

It all came from, you guessed it, energy.

“When I talk about that, it is about getting to shooters. I thought in the first half, Boise State did a great job of getting 3-point shooters open,” he said. “We broke down defensively more than once. We needed to come out and really get to some shooters. We were able to do that and we started to make some shots and that brings your confidence back.”

The Cowgirls energy on the court then drifted into the stands, as the Wyoming fans came alive as well.

“Our fans are tremendous. They make a difference,” Legerski said. “That’s the biggest change over my six years here. We may have dropped a game my first or second year. The fans now are not going to let you.”

After shooting just 29 percent from the field in the first half, the Cowgirls chipped away at Boise State’s lead and caught and passed the Broncos (48-46) on a pair of free throws each by sophomore Hillary Carlson and freshman Emma Langford. It was Wyoming’s first lead of the game at the 6:17 mark.

The two teams traded leads before the Cowgirls got driving layups by Carlson and McGuffey for a 59-55 advantage with a minute to play. Wyoming closed with one free throw by senior Rebecca Vanderjagt and two by Carlson to clinch the win. Langford bounced back from a tough game on Sunday to lead the Cowgirls with 21 points, while Carlson had a season-high 13 points. McGuffey added nine points and 13 rebounds.

“It’s always to have these games early when they kind of have you in a corner pinned,” McGuffey said. “We really overcame a lot of adversity. In that second half. It was a great win for the team.”

The difference came on the free-throw line, as Wyoming was 22-of-32, while Boise State was 12-of-19.

“We couldn’t keep them off of the free-throw line,” Boise State coach Gordy Presnell said.

Brittany Moore led Boise State (2-3), with 16 points, including 13 in the first half. Boise State hit 6 of 9 3-pointers in the first half, but just 1-of-5 in the second half.

“In the first half, we shot the ball so well from the perimeter that we might have had a false lead to begin with,” Presnell said. “We shot the ball so well and we haven’t done that all year."

Wyoming gets back to the road on Saturday when it faces Oregon in Eugene.