Cowgirls make the plays in the end

Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming sophomore Hillary Carlson drives to the basket against Colorado State on Wednesday.

Wyoming-CSU stats

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

It was de ja vu all over again for the Wyoming Cowgirls … almost.

The Cowgirls almost gave up a 16-point second-half lead but closed strong on the free-throw line for a tough 71-62 win over Colorado State on Wednesday in the Arena-Auditorium.

Earlier in the season, the Cowgirls led CSU by 20 in the first half, before escaping with a three-point win.

On Wednesday, the lead got down to five with just under two minutes left. But Wyoming hit 8-of-8 from the free throw line in the final minute and earned its third win in its last four games.

“I don’t think we had as big of a lead on them this time than we had the last time, but I think, unlike the first game, we really have a lot of confidence in ourselves right now,” sophomore guard Randi Richardson said. “I don’t think we ever really doubted ourselves, that we weren’t going to win the game. We made it a little too close again, but that’s what happens in rivalry games … people bring their best game.”

Wyoming opened by missing nine of its first 10 shots from the field, but chipped away before going on a 11-0 run, highlighted by three straight 3-pointers, two by reserve Jade Kennedy and the other by Richardson. The Cowgirls led 35-22 at halftime.

Wyoming would go up by as much as 16 early in the second half, before CSU cut the lead to 61-56 on a 3-pointer by Kim Mestdagh with 1:17 left. The Cowgirls answered by hitting 8-of-8 from the free-throw line in the final minute.

“It feels good to win after the start that we had,” Wyoming sophomore Hillary Carlson, who finished with 16 points.

Sophomore Emma Langford led the way with 17 points, while Richardson and Kristen Scheffler added 12 each. Carlson also had nine rebounds and five blocked shots.

“Emma came on to get us 17 points and that was big,” Wyoming coach Joe Legerski said. “All of the sudden, we had four people in double digit in scoring with Hillary and Kristen coming through. Nothing was bigger than Hillary’s five blocks. She as really able to control the paint.”

The difference between the first game and Wednesday was on the line. Wyoming hit 28-of-33 from the free-throw line, to just 9-of-13 for CSU.

“A month ago, we ended up going 4-of-8 in the last minute,” Legerski said. “It was nice to see Emma step up there, Hillary step up and Randi step up. You have to win close games on the free-throw line.”

Knowing that the Rams would not call it a day after halftime, Legerski said that he told his team that the game is all about 40 minutes and they had to be stronger on the boards and on the free-throw line.

The Cowgirls were just that, out-rebounding CSU 41-34.

“When they started making their 3-pointers towards the end, it closed the game in a hurry," Legerski said. “We just asked everybody to just take a deep breath and do what we’d been doing for the previous 35 minutes.”

Bonnie Barbee, who hit two 3-pointers in the final minute, led the Rams, 9-18, 4-10, with 11 points, followed by Carine Reimink adding 10.

“Wyoming made some good adjustments from the first time that we played them,” CSU coach Kristen Holt said. “Their zone really hurt us. I thought we were tentative and couldn’t make shots. We couldn’t penetrate the zone enough and we just couldn’t handle it well.”

Legerski said the Cowgirls’ zone defense did what it needed to do and switching back to man-to-man also threw the Rams off, who hit just 35 percent shooting from the field.

“CSU started making some adjustments, attacking the zone, so the last eight minutes, we went back to our man defense,” he said. “Once again, I thought we played very well.”

The Cowgirls will close their home schedule on Saturday when they host Air Force, beginning at 2 p.m.