Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming sophomore Hillary Carlson has scored 41 points in her last two games.
Cowgirls-Utes boxscore
By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org
The night looked promising: Senior Megan McGuffey basically steps out of the hospital bed to the basketball court and nails a 3-pointer on the first possession against Utah in the Cowgirls Mountain West Conference season opener.
It basically went south from there in the 70-52 loss to the Utes Wednesday night in the Arena-Auditorium.
The Cowgirls had a slight reprieve offensively last Saturday in the win over San Francisco. Their shooting woes returned not too long after McGuffey’s opening 3-pointer on Wednesday.
Wyoming shot just 22 percent from the field (7-of-31) in the first half and just 4-of-22 from behind the 3-point arc in the game.
With Utah’s dynamic duo of Kalee Whipple and Morgan Warburton taking over the game (55 points), the Wyoming offense couldn’t keep up.
Take away another outstanding effort from 6-foot-3 sophomore Hillary Carlson off the bench and it would have been much worse. Carlson was 7-of-12 from the field and scored a team-high 19 points, 14 in the second half.
Wyoming coach Joe Legerski said they got a "big-time effort" out of Carlson and not much else.
“Utah adjusted to start sending so many people at her and that’s when you have to step up and make a shot on the perimeter,” Legerski said. “I take a look at these numbers and see that we are 4-of-22 from 3. We didn’t step up tonight and help Hillary. That is something that we have to address. When you take a look at the numbers, basically everyone had an opportunity to shoot a 3. We just didn’t have anybody answer.”
Carlson has now scored 41 points in her last two games and I closing in on averaging double-figures for the season.
Now, if the Cowgirls can just put an all-around game offensively together.
“Hillary is a tremendous talent. We talked about getting the ball inside and started the second half by getting the ball to Elisabeth (Dissen) and we score, then we take two perimeter shots,” Legerski said. “That is something we have to grow as a group. When it is time to go inside, we have to take advantage of that.
“When they were doubling Hillary, she was able to find ways to score. She is going to continue to grow. Hillary is a sophomore and we’re excited about her development. In the last two games, she has had 22 and 19 points. That’s stepping up big-time for this team.”
Freshman guard Kristen Scheffler, who added 11 points, said struggling like they are at times offensively can be frustrating, but they can’t keep their heads down or those struggles will continue.
“You have to keep your head up and keep shooting,” Scheffler said. “Hopefully, it will turn around.”
With the way Carlson and at times Dissen are scoring inside, and with the way the Cowgirls can struggle from the outside, Wyoming is turning into a post-dominated team.
While that can be good, it also could come back to haunt them of the outside shooting isn’t there, Legerski said.
“People are going to scout us and they are going to try to take away our inside game. Then it is up to our perimeter kids to step up and be able to knock down some shots,” Legerski said.
Wyoming did improve offensively in the second half, shooting about 45 percent from the field. That wasn’t enough to catch the high-flying Utes, though.
“I think at halftime, we just decided that maybe our shots weren’t falling like we wanted to. We were going to push it inside and be aggressive,” Carlson said.
Wyoming did lead early in the game, but Whipple and Warburton took over and ran off an 18-7 run to close the half for a 31-18 lead. Utah put the game away early in the second half on an 11-0 run and led by as much as 22 in the game.
“I thought it was a good game for us,” Utah head coach Elaine Elliott said. “I thought we did more good than not. When we turn it over early in the game, it is such a pattern. The good news is, except for a couple of times down the stretch when it got kind of ugly, we took care of the ball the rest of the game. And that is critical for us. We need to keep the turnovers down.”
Turnovers have been a problem for the young Cowgirls this season, but that wasn’t the case on Wednesday, as Wyoming lost the basketball just nine times. They just couldn’t get the shot to fall. Much of that can be attributed to nerves and inexperience, Legerski said.
“It’s stepping out on the floor where all of the sudden everything counts,” he said. “I always talk about, that it is always a situation where it was very difficult to play; it‘s very easy to sit on the bench. When you are out playing, you have to be held accountable for making some plays. Not only do you have to shoot the basketball, you have to make your share of shots. We’re not doing that right now and I think it gets a little contagious.”
McGuffey battles despite illness
Despite her illness, McGuffey did play 20 minutes and score six points. As could be expected, she did wear down in the second half, playing just six minutes. It was a valiant effort, Legerski said.
“I had to get Megan out of the game,” he said. “I think at times she gave us everything she had. She’s a young woman who was in the hospital, dehydrated, didn’t practice for two days … she tried to give us everything.”
Down, but not out
Legerski said there is no shame in losing to a team like Utah, led by veteran head coach Elaine Elliott. It’s just one conference game and he said there is plenty of time to improve.
And improve is what the Wyoming coach expects his young Cowgirls to do.
“We just have to keep growing. We’re going to get back to where we are in the top half of this league. But right now, the hill is pretty steep,” he said. “Utah is very good defensively. We knew going in that it was going to be a challenge. With this group, we’re going to have more nights when we are challenged. I’ve been telling people that in the last couple of years here at Wyoming, we were able to carry the banner at the top of the league. We’re rebuilding, there is no doubt.”
Carlson said the Cowgirls can learn from these type of losses.
“We can definitely learn from this all around -- defensively and offensively,” Carlson said.
Next up
The Cowgirls will return to action next Wednesday on the road against an equally tough San Diego State team.
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