Cowgirls fall to Aztecs

Wyoming-San Diego State boxscore

By Wyoming Sports.org

SAN DIEGO -- The Wyoming Cowgirls battled back to make a game of it, but came up a bit short, falling to San Diego State 49-42 in Mountain West Conference action Wednesday night.

The Cowgirls trailed by 11 at halftime and by as much as 14 in the second half before rallying to cut the Aztecs lead in half in the final minutes. But seven was as close as Wyoming would get.

The loss dropped the Cowgirls to 0-2 in league play and 8-7 overall, while San Diego State moved to 2-1 and 11-4.

Wyoming coach Joe Legerski said he was pleased with how his team battled against a very good San Diego State squad.

“Our goal tonight was to compete for 40 minutes,” Legerski said. “Kristen Scheffler, Elisabeth Dissen and Hillary Carlson really stepped up and gave us a big lift. It was really important for this group to play well, and I think we grew up a little bit tonight. Whether or not we can maintain that with young players, it will be the challenge. My hat also goes off to Randi Richardson, who played the 40 minutes under constant pressure.”

Two Cowgirls finished the night in double figures, led by Scheffler. The Lovell freshman finished with 12 points on 5-of-9 from the field. She was followed by Dissen with 10 points and Megan McGuffey with nine. Carlson was the leading rebounder with seven. As a team, the Cowgirls shot 40 percent from the field (16-of-40), but turned the ball over 23 times.

Paris Johnson was the leading scorer for the Aztecs with 14 points and six rebounds, while Jennifer Layton-Bailes added 11 points. San Diego State shot 20-of-62 (.323) from the field and out-rebounded Wyoming 38-31.

The 49 npoints by the Aztecs proved to be a season-low. Defense, however, won the game, SDSU coach Beth Burns said.

"We have really struggled inside in back-to-back games," Burns said, "We didn't get much (offensive production) up at Utah and again today, especially against (Wyoming's) the zone defense. I liked that we kept attacking and kept shooting. That's why we say, 'defense wins,' because we kept Wyoming to only 14 points at halftime and we felt like we would break out of (the shooting slump)."

The Cowgirls stayed close early, trailing just 12-11, but the Aztecs scored 11 straight and kept that advantage at halftime, leading 25-14.

The Cowgirls really struggled in the first half offensively once again, connecting on 5-of-17 from the field and committing 13 turnovers. In the 70-52 loss against Utah last week, the Cowgirls shot 16 percent from the field in the first half.

Wyoming tried to chip into the lead out of the halftime break as they went on a 10-4 run to pull within five, 29-24, behind eight points from Scheffler. The Aztecs stormed back with seven straight points to extend the lead back to double figures and then lead 46-32. Wyoming battled back but could get no closer than seven.

Wyoming will return home this weekend as the Cowgirls host UNLV on Saturday, beginning at 1:30 p.m.