LARAMIE, Wyo. — The Wyoming Cowgirls put together a dominant performance Saturday afternoon, as they played arguably their most-complete game of the season in a 79-45 romp over Boise State.
Allyson Fertig and Emily Mellema both scored 22 points in the rout, and the 34-point margin of victory is the most for ever the Cowgirls against Boise State.
The two strong defensive teams flexed their defensive prowess to begin the contest as Wyoming got five of the first six hoops of the game to take an early 10-2 lead. Boise State responded, however, cutting the score down to 10-7. Following a timeout, Fertig scored six points and Kati Ollilainen added a spinning layup to fall to push the UW advantage back up to 18-7.
After a Mellema coast-to-coast steal-and-score, the Wyoming lead was 20-7 after one quarter of play. The Cowgirls’ first 24 points from field goals all came inside the paint Saturday.
After UW got the first hoop of the second quarter, the two teams started trading scores. As the quarter began to wear on, turnovers began to hurt Wyoming’s efficient offense. Back to back layups got the lead up to 15, at 32-17, with a little over three minutes left in the half.
The swarming Cowgirl defense and back-to-back 3-pointers from Malene Pedersen and Mellema forced a Boise State timeout with just under two minutes remaining in the quarter as UW’s lead grew to 38-20. Wyoming led 38-21 at the break.
The Cowgirls’ efficient offense continued to open the second half as they ogt up by as many as 21 to open the third quarter. After a McKinley Dickerson layup, Boise State called a timeout with about six and a half minutes left in the third as the Wyoming lead ballooned to 46-25. After the timeout, the Cowgirl onslaught continued as they led by 26 after a Dickerson 3-pointer.
The deficit remained relatively unchanged to open the fourth quarter as the Cowgirls led 63-36 with under seven minutes to play. After a pair of pull-up jumpers from Emily Mellema and then a three from the senior, the Wyoming advantage surpassed the 30-point mark.
Mellema’s personal run reached nine-straight, and was then followed by a Fertig layup that capped the incredible game for the Cowgirls. The Brown & Gold led 76-38 when the reserves came in for the final 3:45.
“I think this is one of the best games we’ve played as far as stringing together four quarters,” head coach Heather Ezell said. “I think that’s some of the best execution I’ve seen from us, defensive-wise. But really, on both ends, that was some pretty good basketball we put together for 40 minutes.”
Wyoming shot 55.6% from the floor and hit four of 11 from 3-point range. Boise State shot a season-low 30.5% and went just one of eight from beyond the arc.
In addition to their 22 points each, Fertig and Mellema combined to shoot 19-of-27 from the floor. Mellema had four steals defensively, while Fertig pulled down 17 rebounds in the win. Pedersen closed the game with 15 points and five assists, while Ola Ustowska and Tess Barnes had six and four assists, respectively.
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