Cowgirls roll past Dakota State

by Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

CASPER -- Finals week and very little practice time didn't seem to slow down the Wyoming Cowgirls Saturday in the annual Wyoming Shootout at the Casper Events Center.

Wyoming coach Joe Legerski couldn't have scripted the game much better, as the Cowgirls rolled to an 102-54 win over NAIA Dakota State.

The stat sheet said it all: 51 percent shooting from the field, 31 assists, five turnovers. Not bad for a team that practiced about as much all week than it normally does in one day.

"We had about three and one-half hours of practice this week because of finals," Legerski said. "Usually, we get in three and one-hours a day. You take a look at how much time we gave away, I thought we came out focused. We moved the basketball; we found Hillary inside and Hillary had 26 points. When they start collapsing on Hillary, we had an answer from the perimeter."

The Cowgirls (8-1) overcame a slow start to dominate the Trojans, an NAIA team that played the game as an exhibition.

Lashonda Martin scored 10 points for the Trojans (4-5).

Carlson was 11 of 16 from the field and also grabbed nine bounds before being replaced midway through the second half.

"We hadn't played in about a week and had just been concentrating on finals," Carlson said. "We had a lot of motivation and we really came out and played well."

Of the 31 assists, 16 came from the point guard position. Starter Randy Richardson had 10 assists and backup Bec Campigli added six.

"It was 31 assists on 39 field goals and that is even more important," Legerski said. "We talked about keeping the ball off of the floor early. We kept it on the floor too much early and we changed up offensively of what we wanted to do and it really seemed to keep the ball off of the floor and cleared the lanes for everyone."

Sophomore Kristen Scheffler scored 21 points, followed by sophomore Emma Langford with 16 and junior Aubrey Vandiver with 13. The Cowgirls led 48-30 at halftime and pulled away behind strong outside shooting. Wyoming opened the second half by hitting its first four 3-pointers and finished the game connecting on 14 of 31 attempts.

"We did a really good job of sharing the ball," Carlson said.