Behind senior forward Kayla Woodward’s season high of 26 points, the Wyoming Cowgirls beat the Nevada Wolf Pack 77-54. The Cowgirls are now 13-11 overall and are 8-6 in Mountain West conference play.
“Kayla had about as good a first half that I’ve had the privilege of coaching. To come out, go 7-10 from the field, 6-6 from three and really moved well in getting herself open in the offensive sets,” head coach Joe Legerski said.
Woodward began the game on fire, giving the Cowgirls an early 3-0 lead and never letting them look back. She hit all of her three balls and had a career high in three-pointers made in a game with six.
“The ball was going in the first couple of times, so that means you just keep shooting, and even when you miss you just keep shooting. Dent was giving it to me when I was open and they just ended up falling in,” Kayla Woodward said.
Woodward led all scores at half with 20. Junior Marquelle Dent was next in scoring at half with nine points. Dent also had seven assists at the half. In the first half, Wyoming was shooting 51.7 percent from the field and was shooting 70 percent from the three ball.
“In the second half, everyone really stepped up especially to shoot 54 percent. I thought Marquelle controlled the game, did things offensively, defensively and to have nine assists to one turnover. To have four players in double-figure scoring and defensively Sibrel was big in tonight’s game,” coach Legerski said.
The second half began with the Cowgirls extending their lead and was able to build it as large as 32 points. Wyoming continued to shoot above 50 percent from the field in the second half and was able to shoot 66.7 percent from three-point range off of six shots. The Cowgirls held the Wolf Pack to 31.3 percent shooting in the second half compared to the 40.7 percent Nevada was shooting in the first. Nevada committed five turnovers with three coming from steals that were forced by Dent. Wyoming won the game 77-54.
“I think that we just went out and played really good defense like we did at Nevada, and obviously it is always easier to play at home with the crowd behind you,” Marquelle Dent said.
This was the Cowgirls fourth straight win and their fourth straight at home. They currently sit sixth in the Mountain West and are three games back of first place with four games to go.
The Cowgirls next game won’t be until Feb. 25 where they will face off against the Fresno State Bulldogs. The game will be played in Fresno at 8 p.m. MT.
