Cowgirls have tough task at Utah

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

After the dust clears is an old sports cliché that just might come into play in Mountain West Conference women’s basketball this season.

Other than Air Force, the conference has taken turns in beating each other up this season.

TCU and BYU stand on top of the league with 4-1 records, with San Diego State at 4-2. Wyoming and Colorado State are 3-2 each, followed by New Mexico at 3-3 and Utah at 2-3.

To further complicate things, just last week, BYU fell to Wyoming, but knocked off San Diego State. The Aztecs beat Utah, then the Utes beat Air Force. Colorado State beat UNLV and New Mexico and TCU beat UNLV.

The week before, Utah beat New Mexico, but New Mexico beat Wyoming. The Cowgirls beat TCU, but the Lady Frogs beat San Diego State. The Aztecs beat UNLV, but the Lady Rebels beat Utah. The Utes beat Air Force and BYU also beat CSU.

The Cowgirls, who travel to Salt Lake City to face Utah (7 p.m.) on Wednesday, have the distinction of beating the top two teams -- BYU and TCU.

What does all of this mean? Other than Air Force, it is anybody’s game, especially on the home court.

“It’s going to make for a great conference race,” Wyoming coach Joe Legerski said. “Every night you have to be ready to play. You take a look a this schedule, it is difficult just to find wins. I think that is the biggest challenge. There are no nights off. You see teams everywhere having an opportunity to win, and what you are seeing is teams defending their home court. If we can find three or four wins on the road, that will go a long way to finish in the top of the league.”

Utah is 9-1 on its home court this season.

“What you try to do is go in (on the road) and play the best basketball that you can, and hopefully you are still in the game with four minutes to go and maybe the ball bounces your way,” Legerski said.
　
The Cowgirls, 12-5 overall, are coming off a big 69-54 victory over the BYU Cougars last Tuesday night. Three Cowgirls are scoring in double-figures, led by junior Aubrey Vandiver with 14.5 points and 9.5 rebounds. She is followed by fellow junior Hillary Carlson with 14.1 points and a team leading two blocks per game, while sophomore Emma Langford is adding 12.3 points and 3.5 assists.

“I’m excited to get back out on the court,” Legerski said. “I thought we played extremely well against BYU, we shot the ball well, but we were also at home. We were able to defend our home court.”

Utah is 2-3 in league play and 11-7 record overall. They are led by Kalee Whipple, who is averaging 15.4 points and 5.6 rebounds. She is followed by Taryn Wicijowski with 14.4 points and 7.1 rebounds.

Whipple, who scored a career-high 32 last year against the Cowgirls, is averaging about 21 points a game against Wyoming in the last two seasons.

“Kaylee Whipple is a first-team all-conference player and she seems to play very well against us,” Legerski said. “It is a game where we are going to have to make sure that we slow their top players down and make sure we don’t let anyone else have a big night."

UW-Utah Series

This is the 66th meeting between the two teams. Utah leads the series 57-8. Wyoming did sweep Utah in 2007. The last time the two teams met was Feb. 8, 2009, as the Utes defeated the Cowgirls 64-57 in Salt Lake City.