Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming sophomore Hillary Carlson tries to get past a BYU player on Saturday.
Wyoming-BYU statistics
By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org
It seems to be a danger each time the Wyoming Cowgirls step out on the court: Ice-cold shooting.
The Cowgirls couldn’t buy a bucket at times on Saturday and that proved to be costly, as Brigham Young rolled to a 58-45 win Saturday in the Arena-Auditorium.
The Cowgirls shot just 26 percent from the field (13-of-49) and were especially chilly in the first half, hitting on just 5 of 26 attempts (19 percent).
“We just have a difficult time scoring,” Wyoming coach Joe Legerski said. “This is not the first night out that this has happened to us; this happens on a regular basis. It is about being confident enough to shoot the basketball. It is also about being confident that you can make a play. When you take a look at three of our top four scorers, they are a sophomore and two freshmen. It is really tough in this league to be that young and expect your youth to step up every night out.”
An aggressive BYU defense seemed to bully the Cowgirls around a bit. Sophomore Hillary Carlson was just 2-for-11 from the field, freshman Kristen Scheffler was 1-for-8 and senior Megan McGuffey was 0-for-3.
Senior reserve Elisabeth Dissen led the Cowgirls with nine points.
“We went 3-for-22 from our leading scorers,” Legerski said. “You don’t have much of a chance because everybody else just starts standing around. It just did not seem that anybody really wanted to shoot the basketball tonight and be committed to make a play.”
It was an especially tough night for Carlson, who had been averaging 17.3 points a game in the previous six league contests. Carlson picked up three fouls in a manner of 14 seconds early in the second half, sending her to the bench at the 18:02 mark. She did not return until a little over six minutes left and then fouled out two minutes later.
“Hillary had been through a tremendous stretch here where she had scored in double figures, she has had double-doubles in the last month,” Legerski said. “She has become the focus of teams trying to stop us. I think some frustration set in for her to night. That is a growing situation for her to learn. When we played Air Force, they doubled her every time she caught the ball and that is something new for Hillary to understand.”
When push came to shove, the Cowgirls didn’t push back.
“When you play a team like that, you have to grit your teeth and do the same thing back,” McGuffey said. “I think a times we really needed to do that and we were unable to do so.”
BYU took the Cowgirls out of their rhythm offensively and Wyoming hit on just 3 of 16 3-pointers.
“We struggled from the outside,“ McGuffey said. “We got good production from the inside, but at times we depended on that too much, throwing the ball into Hillary and Diss (Dissen) and not moving around them too much. We just have to get our motion offense back on track and get our legs under us.”
Even with the Cowgirl struggles in the first half, they only trailed 23-20 at the break.
“I was happy at halftime,” Legerski said. “You shoot 19 percent and you are down three. The problem is, we came out with very little energy to start the second half and BYU came out with a great deal of energy and jumped on us.”
The Cowgirls also struggled taking care of the basketball, turning it over 13 times in the second half, after just six miscues in the first.
“We had been taking care of the basketball some, and at times, we looked like a tired team out there,” Legerski said. “I think BYU had a great deal to do with that.”
BYU forward Keilani Moeki was the lone player to score in double figures, with 13. The Cougars shot 42 percent from the field (22-of-53) and held a 40-32 rebound edge.
“We seemed to have a lot more energy in the second half,” BYU coach Jeff Judkins said. “I subbed a lot early, but we have a deep bench, so I was able to do that.”
The Cowgirls will host New Mexico on Wednesday.
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