by staff–23 Jan ’21
The Wyoming Cowgirls’ second half comeback bid fell short Friday night on the road as the Cowgirls lost at Nevada, 60-52. The 12-point deficit UW faced heading into the second half proved too much to overcome after the Wolf Pack shot 60 percent in the first half.
Nevada (6-6, 2-5 MW) went 15-for-25 in the opening 20 minutes while the Cowgirls shot just 7-of-18 (39 percent), committed 11 turnovers and trailed at halftime 32-20. For the game, Wyoming (6-6, 4-5 MW) shot 38.5 percent and went just 3-of-21 from 3-point range. The Wolf Pack shot 47 percent from the floor overall.
Alba Sanchez Ramos led three Cowgirls in double figures on the night as she scored a game-high 15 points on 4-of-8 shooting, including a 6-for-6 performance at the free-throw line. Sanchez Ramos also had a block and a steal on the defensive end in the loss. McKinley Bradshaw and Quinn Weidemann each dropped in 10. Weidemann hit two of the Cowgirls’ three 3-pointers in the loss while Bradshaw went 5-of-10 from the floor and added a team-high five rebounds.
The Wolf Pack out-rebounded Wyoming 36-24 in the contest and had a 12-8 edge in points off turnovers. The Cowgirls, despite getting out-rebounded, had a 5-4 edge in second-chance points while also outscoring the Wolf Pack 30-26 in the paint.
Nevada jumped out to a big lead after one quarter of play, 20-10, behind the strength of a 9-for-12 shooting performance in the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Wolf Pack extended their lead to as many as 14, 30-16 with 6:04 to go in the half and carried that 32-20 advantage into the break.
The Cowgirls would slowly chip away at the deficit in the third, outscoring the Wolf Pack 15-4 to open the quarter and getting to within four points at 39-35, thanks to a Marta Savic layup. Four points would be as close as the Cowgirls would get the rest of the third and trailed 43-37 going to the fourth.
In the fourth, Nevada got back-to-back hoops sandwiched around a Tommi Olson free throw and led 47-38 with 8:31 to play. Trailing 49-41, UW got a 3-pointer by Sanchez Ramos and then a jumper by Bradshaw to get within three, 49-46, but wouldn’t get any closer as a 6-0 run by Nevada stretched the lead back out to 55-46 with just 33 seconds to play.
Nevada was led in the game by Megan Ormiston, who scored 14 points and grabbed five boards. Nia Alexander chipped in with 11 on the night.
The Cowgirls will now look to rebound in Nevada Sunday afternoon as the two teams will play their series finale at 1:30 p.m., in Reno.
