(Autumn McPherson Photo)
Mountain West play has been anything but kind to the Wyoming Cowgirl basketball team this year. The Cowgirls have endured their fair share of struggles throughout this season, currently sitting at a 5-12 overall record and 2-6 league record just one year removed from when they made an appearance in the championship game of the conference tournament after finishing second in the Mountain West standings.
Head coach Heather Ezell has struggled to replace the production of a steady senior class from a season ago, one that featured both the Mountain West Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. The Cowgirls have especially missed their presence on the offensive side of the ball, as the Cowgirls have plummeted from ranking ninth in the league in scoring offense a season ago to dead last this season, currently averaging around 53.88 points a game–about 12 points less than their output a season ago.
The Cowgirls have been unable to exceed the 50-point final scoring threshold on eight different occasions this season, which has been a major contributor as to why they currently place at the bottom of the league in scoring offense.
Ezell is confident they can turn that statistic around, though.
“I’m happy with the [shots] we’ve been taking, it’s the one’s we’re working on in practice,” Ezell said after the Cowgirls were dusted by UNLV by a final score of 82-53 in the Arena-Auditorium a few weeks ago. “We just got to stay in them and continue to try and get those to fall.”
The Cowgirls did return one extremely consistent presence from a season ago in all-Mountain West honoree Malene Pedersen, who has done a lion’s share of the scoring this season. Pedersen has also been playing the role as a veteran presence for the team, as the decorated senior has been a consistent four-year starter since she arrived on campus.
Her, alongside the emergence of budding do-it-all freshman Jane Rumpf, have been doing their very best to will the Cowgirls back into the Mountain West race–and they did just that in the Cowgirls’ most recent win over Air Force. Both were electric on the offensive side of the ball, as Pedersen finished with a game-high 24 points while shooting over 61% from the field, and Rumpf finished with a double-double including 17 points and 12 rebounds en route to 23-point drubbing of Air Force.
That win snapped a grim six game losing streak for the Cowgirls, and breathed some much needed life back into a team brimming with inexperienced youth. It was an impressive showing that Pedersen knew this team had in them, despite previous uninspiring results.
“I think it’s not like we’re lacking our confidence…I am doing my best to make sure that we stay confident and believe in ourselves because we got to do that and we got to trust in each other as well,” Pedersen said.
The Cowgirls will have a good opportunity to boost their position amongst the conference standings with two straight games against Utah State, a team the Cowgirls are currently tied with around the bottom of the standings. The Cowgirls will have first play the Aggies tonight, then again on Saturday.
While the sledding has been undoubtedly tough for the Cowgirls this season, their season is far from over. Stringing together more than two consecutive wins–something the Cowgirls have yet to do throughout the course of this season–would be massive for this team as they continue to improve.
“As long as we still put in and focus on the positive side too, otherwise we’re all just going to hang our heads,” Pedersen said. “Just talking positive to each other, trusting in each other. I just think we got to take it one game at a time.”
