Cowgirls get a confidence boost

Wyoming-San Francisco boxscore

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

It seemed like just yesterday that the Wyoming Cowgirls were searching for some answers.

Actually, it’s been just a week or so since the young Cowgirls went through a tough stretch offensively, falling to Saint Louis by 15 and to Gonzaga by 29 points. Even in Tuesday’s 10-point win over Division II Adams State, the Cowgirls seemed a little out of sync.

Saturday’s 82-60 win over San Francisco, however, perked things up for Wyoming, which now embarks on Mountain West Conference play on Wednesday when the Cowgirls host Utah in the A-A.

“It’s a great win to go into conference season,” Wyoming senior forward Megan McGuffey said. “The past few games, we felt like we hadn’t been playing to our potential, so we couldn’t have asked for a better game going into our game against Utah.”

The Cowgirls found their scoring punch for the first time in a while, especially underneath the basket where Wyoming held a 42-16 edge over the Dons inside the paint.

McGuffey and sophomore Hillary Carlson led the way with 22 points each, with senior post Elisabeth Dissen and freshman guard Kristen Scheffler adding 12 points each. Wyoming shot 55 percent from the field (28-of-52), with much of it coming up close. The Cowgirls hit on just 4 of 13 3-point attempts.

Wyoming head coach Joe Legerski said that McGuffey and Carlson set the pace in game, especially when the Dons went to a full-court press.

“We had it drawn up to get the ball to Megan,” he said. “We talked about finishing and attacking pressure, don’t just break the press. Megan did it twice. I thought we had great success there.”

McGuffey hit 8-of-15 from the field for her season high in points.“For both Hillary and Megan to step up … 22 points apiece, it came in a variety of ways,” Legerski said. “Megan was driving to the basket, she was posting up, she was hitting the short jumper. Hillary was able to get to the basket and finish over the tops of people. They gave us a great lift.”

San Francisco’s few leads were very early and Wyoming took a 15-point advantage into the locker room at halftime.

“It is always more difficult to play when you are trailing in a game. For some reason, when you have a lead, more shots fall. Today, that was just the case,” McGuffey said.

Not only did the Cowgirls play well to build the first-half lead, they never let the Dons get back in the game with second-half runs. San Francisco could get no closer than 17 in the final 15 minutes.

“We talked about being up 15, but we also talked about the team that wins the second half, wins the game,” Legerski said. “We wanted to go out in the first four minutes and make sure they could not cut into our lead. For whatever reason, we anticipated better, we moved better, we attacked the basket. We played a little freer. When shots start going down, it gets everybody confidence on he floor.”

Wyoming will now focus on its MWC opener against Utah. All-in-all, the Cowgirls feel much better about things than they did even a couple of days ago. A solid all-around victory will do that for you.

“Along the way in this pre-season, we felt like we could have picked up a few games here and there, but I think being 8-5 and confident right now, we’re ready to get the conference season going,” McGuffey said.

Vandiver to redshirt
Legerski officially announced after the game on Saturday that junior guard Aubrey Vandiver would redshirt this season, as she has not completely won her battle with mononucleosis. Last season, Vandiver averaged 11 points a game.

“It came down to a choice to try to decide if we could play Aubrey in the conference season,” Legerski said. “Aubrey didn’t feel like she could make the whole season. I wasn’t going to use her for four or five games and burn her for a whole year.”

Freeze getting court time
Cowgirl freshman guard Brenna Freeze, with Vandiver now officially out, has been getting some added minutes in the last couple of games. On Saturday, she scored two points and dished out a pair of assists in 11 minutes. She scored four points against Adams State. Before Tuesday, she had played just two other times in the regular season.

Legerski said that Breeze is being worked into the lineup to give Scheffler and sophomore Randi Richardson a spell or two.

“One of the things that we have been trying to do is go with two guards. That’s been an adjustment that we have made over the last two games -- Randi starts at the point and Kristen move over to the two. Sometimes we’ll flop them,” Legerski said. “We just decided to put Emma (Langford) in a natural position at the four. It allows Brenna minutes on the floor and Brenna has been working hard. We’ve called on her the last couple of games to give Randi and Kristen a break at times, and I think it has worked out for us. It creates a long jam at the three and our spot, but that is something for me to work on.”

Langford still struggling
Although Langford still leads the team in scoring (12.3 ppg), as well as other categories, the true freshman has struggled as of late. She played just nine minutes on Saturday, scoring two points. She has scored just 22 points in her last four games.

Legerski said that Langford is also struggling with a sore back. She didn’t practice the last two games.

“We’ve had Emma out and we have to try to get Emma back healthy,” he said. “I think she is starting to think too much when she is out there playing, she is trying to press a little. We have to get Emma back to playing the way she can play.”