Cowgirls come up short again

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

As well as the Wyoming Cowgirls have played this season, when it all is said and done, it comes down to experience.

Experience was still on Utah's side on Sunday, as the Utes edged the Cowgirls 52-48 in the Arena-Auditorium.

The loss was a tough one for the Cowgirls, who fell to 7-7 in Mountain West Conference play and 16-10 overall. A win would have put Wyoming in a logjam with six losses but instead drops the Cowgirls to sixth in league.

Utah, meanwhile, at 9-5 is now tied for second place in the conference with BYU.

“We are the only league team to win here,” Utah coach Elaine Elliott said. “The thing that was really in our favor is we have won here and we know we can win here.”

Wyoming coach Joe Legerski said he hopes this is a game that his young team learns from.

“We have so many players that need to understand when to make a play, how we are going to make a play,” Legerski said. “Utah went to their senior (Kalee Whipple) at the end with the score tied. She ended up getting to the free throw line. We then had a shot blocked and had a turnover. Hopefully, we grow from this and get better.”

It appeared as if the Cowgirls would continue their strong play at home, hitting their first two shots for a 5-0 lead. Wyoming, however, would manage just one field goal in its next 15 attempts but still hung around before leading 24-22 at halftime.

It was back and forth the rest of the way.

The Utes overcame a four-point deficit with eight minutes remaining on a 9-0 run, keyed by a three-point play by Taryn Wicijowski. The Cowgirls battled back with six straight to go up by a point, but Whipple broke a 48-48 tie with two free throws with 59 seconds left.

Wyoming, however, couldn't answer when Emma Langford's shot was blocked with 10 seconds left and the Cowgirls fouled immediately. Wyoming still had one last chance to tie the game after a missed free throw by Whipple with 9.5 seconds left, but Wyoming's Randi Richardson was called for traveling with 1.9 seconds remaining, and Utah added a layup by Janita Badon at the buzzer.

“We knew it was going to be a possession by possession game,” Legerski said.

Whipple led the Utes with 17 points, followed by Wicijowski and Badon adding 10. The Utes shot just 35 percent from the field (21 of 59), but outscored Wyoming 17-11 off of turnovers and had a 14-6 advantage in second-chance points.

Hillary Carlson scored 13 points for Wyoming, followed by Jade Kennedy with 12. Kennedy was the lone Cowgirl who shot the ball well, as she hit 4 of 6 from the field. Wyoming made just 29 percent of its shots (16 of 54), including 3 of 17 3-point attempts.

“We talked going in that Whipple was going to get her points, we just have to make sure that we limit what other people are going to put on the board today,” Legerski said. “More importantly, we need to score. When the game was over in Salt Lake, it was the same scenario, 52-47. Today, 52-48. We talked about that we have to be able to come up with more points. It was a difficult shooting night for us. We have not had many evenings like that at home.”

The Cowgirls will close the regular season next when at Air Force on Wednesday, before hosting UNLV on Saturday.