Richard Anderson photosAt left, Wyoming sophomore Emma Langford drives on a Colorado State-Pueblo player Friday night in an exhibition at the Arena-Auditorium. At bottom, junior Jade Kennedy takes the ball to the basket. Langford finished with 19 points and eight rebounds, while Kennedy added 16 points and nine rebounds in the Cowgirls 76-53 win.
UW-CSU Pueblo box
By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org
The bad news earlier on Friday came when Wyoming women’s basketball coach Joe Legerski learned that sophomore forward Ashley Sickles would be lost for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee.
The potential good news later that night came when the Cowgirls beat Colorado State-Pueblo 76-53 in an exhibition, with junior Jade Kennedy and sophomore Emma Langford more than picking up the slack.
“Just with one less big now, it allows everyone else to step up and I think Jade and all of the other bigs did a good job of that tonight,” Langford said.
Sickles played in 18 games during her freshman campaign and averaged 1.9 points and one rebound in 7.9 minutes per game, but was expected to contribute in the rotation this season and had a strong preseason camp. She was injured late in Monday’s exhibition win over Adams State.
Kennedy picked it up on Friday, scoring 16 points on 6 of 8 shooting, grabbing nine rebounds. Langford, who had an up and down freshman campaign offensively last season, led all scorers with 19 points, along with eight rebounds.
“It’s very difficult losing Ashley Sickles,” Legerski said. “At 6-foot-2 with perimeter skills, who can shoot the basketball and has great length, she gives us somebody who can go in and play at the four at times and guard a five. Losing her for the season now creates a situation where somebody else has to step up and maybe get more minutes, and I thought Jade did that tonight and really played well.”
Kennedy averaged 4.0 points and 4.9 rebounds a game last season off of the bench, had just three points and five rebounds against Adams State on Monday.
Those dreaded first-game nerves are over now and Kennedy said she felt much better offensively on Friday.
“The last game it was a bit nervous because it was the first game, I guess I just relaxed and it just came,” Kennedy said.
Langford, who struggled offensively with her bad back in the second half of last season and was just 1 of 10 shooting on Monday, looked more like the player who showed an offensive spark early in her career.
“It was good to get that first game under our belt and the second game was a lot more relaxing and it was good to get to ourselves and get to our offense,” Langford said.
The Cowgirls started slow on Friday, trailing 8-1 and only leading by four at halftime. Still up by only three, Wyoming shifted into second gear defensively, blanking the Division II Thunderwolves for nearly 10 minutes and scoring 22 unanswered points to run away.
“We needed to pick it on defense in the second half and we did that,” Langford said. “We didn’t want them to get as many open shots … they were shooting well from the 3-point line which made it hard for us to keep extending that lead. In the second half, we were more focused on the 3-point shooters and not let them shoot it as much. We picked it up on defense and the offense came together.”
Legerski said that offensively, Friday wasn’t as smooth as Monday, but he thought CSU-Pueblo had a little to do with that as their zone and trapping created some problems for them. He said that once Wyoming started moving the basketball and attacking the spots, it opened up for them.
“Really, I was very pleased with how we played defensively. We only gave up 12 points in the second half to the four minute mark, which is a tremendous effort,” he said. “Even though sometimes we weren’t playing as well on the offensive side, defensively we were solid especially in the second half.
The Cowgirls open the regular season next Friday in Denver against the Denver Pioneers.
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