Rams surprise Cowgirls in tourney opener

Cowgirls-Rams stats

By Wyoming Sports.org

LAS VEGAS -- The third time was a charm for the Colorado State Rams on Tuesday in the first round of the Mountain West Conference women’s basketball tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Once again, tournament play for the Wyoming Cowgirls was a major disappointment.

Colorado State jumped out to a 20-point first half lead and never really looked back, thumping the Cowgirls 64-56. It was the first win over Wyoming in three games and it also broke a nine-game skid to the Cowgirls dating back to the 2004-2005 season.

Wyoming, meanwhile, fell in the first round for the second straight year and is now 2-19 in combined play of the MWC and Western Athletic Conference tournaments.

“I think in general today, Colorado State came out with a great deal of energy early,“ Legerski said. “I thought they really attacked the basket. They were quicker in transition. We just had to respond from that.”

When the Cowgirls, 16-14, struggle, they usually do some offensively and fall behind early. That was the case against the Rams.

“It's very difficult to continually battle from behind,” Legerski said. “I thought that as far as Wyoming is concerned, we left too many plays out there on the floor today that in tournament play you need to make - none bigger than about 1 minute 40 to go. I believe we're down six and we don't come up with a rebound off a missed free throw, then we don't foul again and come up with the second one.

“Those are plays that you have to make to be in basketball games. But I thought the theme today was CSU's energy and how much they attacked the basket.”

For the Rams, 10-21 and the No. 8 seed, it was the second straight year that they struggled in the regular season, but opened the tourney with a bang. Last year, after a winless MWC regular season, Colorado State won its first two games, including a shocking win over No. 1 seed Utah.

CSU basically dominated all aspects of the game. Amaka Uzomah, Bonnie Barbee and Zoi Simmon all finished with 11 points for the Rams while Uzomah also led the way with nine rebounds. The Rams were 23-of-56 (.411) from the field, 14-of-21 (.667) from the free-throw line and out-rebounded the Cowgirls 39-29.

"I'm extremely proud of my team,” first-year CSU coach Kristen Holt said. “Going into this game, we talked a lot about dictating the tempo. I felt like the first two times we played Wyoming, they dictated the tempo of the game. Our tempo is to try to pick it up and run as much as we can. We pressed a little bit, obviously, today.

“So that's what we wanted to do. We felt that that would play to our advantage. I think it did. So I really liked the start that we had. My team was as focused as they've been in any game this year. It's a good time to be focused. We had good practices leading up to today's game. Zoi took care of the ball very well. I thought she did a great job in the press. Amaka was huge on the boards and made some shots that sometimes I don't let her shoot."

Wyoming senior Megan McGuffey said the Rams were the aggressor the entire game.

“It’s hard to play on your heels when they're playing on their toes the whole game,” McGuffey said. “Yeah, unfortunately, we couldn't come back.”

Three Cowgirls finished the game in double figures, led by sophomore Hillary Carlson, who had 17 points and four rebounds. Freshman Emma Langford followed with 16, while McGuffey added 13 in her final game as a Cowgirl. Freshman Kristen Scheffler had a team high six rebounds.

Wyoming shot 19-of-54 (.352) from the field, 1 of 14 3-pointers (.071) and 17-23 (.739) from the free-throw line.

“You take a look at the last two games, we're 1-of-29 from 3-point range,” Legerski said. “You're not going to win very many games, if any, shooting 1 of 29 from 3. You have to be able to use that. I think, you know, we get players in position to make plays. I came into this game knowing that Colorado State had more tournament experience than we did on the floor with their victories last season. We're out there with a couple of freshmen -- Emma and Kristen -- that I thought did a great job. This is Hillary's first time to step out on tournament play. Those are some challenges for those kids.”