Challenges lie ahead for Cowgirls

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

The month of January was a bit rough on the Wyoming Cowgirls. February was better. What’s in store for March remains to be seen.

One thing that Wyoming coach Joe Legerski knows if his young team is playing better. Whether that is good enough to win at BYU on Wednesday (7 p.m. ) or at New Mexico (2 p.m.) on Saturday... well, that too remains to be seen.

“We’ve really come on in February, going 7-3. We had a very difficult January, starting out 0-4 in league play,” Legerski said. “ We’ve really grown, we’ve really improved and are heading in the right direction. But these two teams at the end of the year are going to be a tremendous challenge for this young group. I’m anxious to see how they respond. I’m hoping that they respond well.”

The biggest key in the cowgirls’ turnaround? If Legerski had to pinpoint it on one area, he would say the Cowgirls have shown improvement on the boards. If fact, he said his team has been more aggressive rebounding the basketball on both ends of the floor.

“We’ve been able to win the rebounding battle over the last few games,“ he said. “We’re more active to the glass.”

It also hasn’t hurt that some of the younger Cowgirls, particularly freshmen Kristen Scheffler and Emma Langford and sophomores Hillary Carlson and Randi Richardson, are playing some of their best basketball of the season.

“For some of our seniors and having the youngsters step up, it has given us the opportunity to win,” Legerski said. “But nothing is more important than being able t win the rebounding battle.”

At 7-7 in the Mountain West , the Cowgirl shave also put themselves in position to move up in the tournament seeding by facing the team (BYU) that they are tied with.

“Right now our focus is on BYU, with both of us tied for fifth place,“ Legerski said. “The winner of Wednesday’s game is going to move forward and have the upper hand. I don’t get too involved at looking at the tie-breaker system is. We have a game that will go head-to-head that will determine how everything will play out.”

Legerski said that the Cowgirls will have to play well offensively to win in Provo and Albuquerque.

“You can sneak a game or two bye when you are not at our best, but towards the end of the season, you have to be at your best,” he said. “On the road at BYU and New Mexico, we’re going to have to be playing at the highest level to have an opportunity to win in the final minutes.”

Last Saturday was Senior Night for three Cowgirls -- Megan McGuffey, Elisabeth Dissen and Rebecca Vanderjagt. That spurned the Cowgirls on to a big 31-point win over Air Force.

Now, the Cowgirls will have to take a shot of their own medicine, as both games will be on their opponent’s Senior Night.

“That always adds a little incentive for our opponents; they’ll play at a high level and their fans will be charged up," Legerski said. “We know we have challenges ahead of us, but we’re going to have to play well, regardless.”