LARAMIE – Death, taxes and the Pokes going bust in Las Vegas.
Wyoming finished 4-for-25 on 3-pointers and with 14 turnovers that led to 21 points on the other end during a 62-48 defeat to UNLV on Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.
The Cowboys (12-10, 5-4 Mountain West) lost for the 20th consecutive time to the Rebels (12-9, 5-4) in regular-season road games dating back to 2003.
UW did beat UNLV in the 2022 MW Tournament in Las Vegas.
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“I’m disappointed in the final score,” UW head coach Jeff Linder said. “We came into the game with a lot of confidence knowing that we were playing a really talented UNLV team. I mean, having played against some of the teams in our league thus far, from a size standpoint, length and athleticism, they’re as big as anybody in our league.”
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Linder’s team played solid half-court defense but went on a scoring drought of 10 minutes, 32 seconds spanning the end of the first half and the start of the second half.
UNLV came out of the halftime locker room and went on an 11-0 run to take a commanding 42-23 lead before Sam Griffin finally scored to stop the bleeding with 12:39 remaining.
UW trailed by as many as 23 points (48-25) before a late push. Mason Walters completed a three-point play to cap a 10-0 run by the Cowboys.
Griffin converted a layup to get UW within 56-44 with 2:55 remaining but freshman Dedan Thomas closed the lid on the coffin with back-to-back 3s for the Rebels.
Cam Manyawu scored 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds off the bench to lead UW. Brendan Wenzel, who was playing with three displaced ribs, added 12 points on 4-for-13 shooting.
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Griffin and Kot combined for 15 points on 6-for-23 shooting.
“For us, we’re one of the top 10 3-point shooting teams in the country and when you go 4-for-25,” Linder said. “A lot of those were pretty open looks. Akuel goes 0-for-8, Sam goes 1-for-6, and if those two guys go 1-for-14 it’s going to be hard for us to win.”
The Cowboys trailed 31-23 at the intermission after shooting 3-for-16 (18.8%) on 3s.
UNLV led 22-13 before Griffin countered with a 3 and Wenzel scored on a sweet spin move in the paint to get the Pokes within four points.
Thomas capped a 9-3 run with a floater to make the score 31-21.
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Wenzel, who scored a career-high 25 points during Tuesday’s win at Air Force, led UW with eight points at the break.
UW held Kalib Boone scoreless on 0-for-6 shooting and limited Rob Whaley to eight points, but Thomas and Keylan Boone scored 14 points each for the Rebels.
UNLV finished 8-for-20 on 3s with four turnovers and 14 assists.
“We did a really good job with our game plan of trying to make things really hard for Kalib Boone, who had been playing at a really high level coming, in along with Robert Whaley,” Linder said. “For Boone not to score, for Waylee to have eight points, we did our job there.”
The Cowboys, who are 8-1 at home, will play No. 19 New Mexico on Tuesday night at the Arena-Auditorium.
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Follow UW beat writer Ryan Thorburn on Twitter @By_RyanThorburn
Wyoming High School boys’ basketball teams have completed seven weeks in the 2025 season. The number of undefeated teams dropped by one, which means only two teams remain. Two more have just one loss. Three schools seek victory number one this season. Most teams have played close to half of their conference games. The standings include all games played through Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025.
WYOPREPS BOYS BASKETBALL STANDINGS WEEK 7 2025
WyoPreps Week 7 Boys Basketball Scoreboard 2025
Teams are listed by their conference record, points rating, or total points earned first, and then by their overall record. If a tie exists, teams are listed in alphabetical order unless a head-to-head result can break the tie.
1A Northeast: (Overall Record, followed by Quadrant Record)
Upton 14-0, 5-0
Hulett 6-4, 3-1
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Midwest 7-5, 2-2
Kaycee 4-12, 3-3
Casper Christian 3-5, 1-4
Arvada-Clearmont 0-13, 0-4
1A Northwest: (Overall Record, followed by Quadrant Record)
Burlington 10-7, 5-0
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St. Stephens 6-8, 4-3
Riverside 5-10, 3-3
Meeteetse 5-6, 2-2
Dubois 5-8, 2-2
Ten Sleep 2-11, 0-6
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1A Southeast: (Overall Record, followed by Points Standing)
Lingle-Ft. Laramie 16-0, 38 points
Lusk 13-1, 27 points
Southeast 10-7, 23 points
H.E.M. 6-11, 10 points
Guernsey-Sunrise 4-10, 9 points
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Rock River 1-13, 1 point
1A Southwest: (Overall Record, followed by Quadrant Record)
Little Snake River 10-4, 5-1
Cokeville 12-4, 4-1
Farson-Eden 9-7, 4-2
Encampment 10-7, 3-3
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Saratoga 9-5, 2-4
Ft. Washakie 2-10, 0-7
2A Northwest: (Overall Record, followed by Quadrant Record)
Thermopolis 13-3, 3-0
Rocky Mountain 8-9, 2-1
Greybull 7-10, 1-2
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Shoshoni 8-6, 0-3
2A Southwest: (Overall Record, followed by Quadrant Record)
Wyoming Indian 12-5, 3-0
Big Piney 9-7, 2-1
Kemmerer 5-12, 1-2
Wind River 0-16, 0-3
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2A East: (Overall Record, Points Ratings)
Wright 15-2, 2.5 rating
Sundance 10-6, 1.625
Pine Bluffs 9-7, 1.438
Big Horn 6-9, 1.267
Tongue River 3-13, 0.563
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Moorcroft 2-14, 0.25
3A East: (Overall Record, followed by Region Record)
Douglas 11-4, 4-0
Buffalo 8-5, 3-1
Torrington 6-6, 3-1
Wheatland 6-10, 2-2
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Rawlins 3-10, 2-2
Newcastle 2-10, 1-2
Glenrock 7-7, 0-3
Burns 3-13, 0-4
3A West: (Overall Record, followed by Region Record)
Lovell 14-1, 3-0
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Pinedale 8-5, 2-0
Cody 10-4, 3-1
Lander 8-6, 2-1
Worland 6-7, 1-2
Lyman 7-9, 1-3
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Mountain View 6-9, 1-3
Powell 10-5, 0-3
4A East: (Overall Record, followed by Region Record)
Campbell County 7-7, 5-1
Sheridan 12-2, 4-2
Laramie 12-4, 4-2
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Thunder Basin 9-5, 4-2
Cheyenne East 9-7, 3-3
Cheyenne Central 6-10, 1-5
Cheyenne South 3-14, 0-6
4A West Conf. 1 SW: (Overall Record, followed by Quadrant Record)
Star Valley 6-7, 3-0
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Evanston 9-5, 2-1
Riverton 5-10, 1-2
Jackson 0-13, 0-3
4A West Conf. 2 NW: (Overall Record, followed by Quadrant Record)
Rock Springs 6-6, 3-0
Natrona County 5-8, 2-1
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Kelly Walsh 5-8, 1-2
Green River 4-10, 0-3
WyoPreps Top 5 Recap Week 7
Wyoming High School Sports Pics of the Week: Jan.23-25
Wyoming High School Sports Pics of the Week: Jan.23-25
Gallery Credit: Frank Gambino, Shannon Dutcher, Lisa Shaw, Greg Wise, Bridget Truempler, Chuck Grant, Mark Thonhoffv, Leah Powell, Jennifer Roberson, Margaret Friday, Herder Pride, Pinedale Wrangler Booster Club, Christy Olsen,
In an effort to restrict abortion access, Wyoming Republicans authored a bill that could choke access to a host of life-saving medical procedures, from chemotherapy to heart surgery.
State judge Melissa Owens overturned Wyoming’s abortion bans in November 2024, citing the state’s constitutionally guaranteed right to healthcare. The Republican state senator Cheri Steinmetz and the bill’s eight co-sponsors took issue with the ruling, and sought to draw up a definition of healthcare that excludes abortion.
“The intent of [Senate File] 125 is to do no harm and go back to that Hippocratic oath and look at healthcare through that lens,” Steinmeitz told the Guardian.
Steinmetz says Senate File 125 offers a new definition of healthcare in Wyoming: “No act, treatment or procedure that causes harm to the heart, respiratory system, central nervous system, brain, skeletal system, jointed or muscled appendages or organ function shall be construed as healthcare.”
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The bill carves out exceptions – for example, when such a procedure is required to save the life of a pregnant woman, or if “a person has no chance of meaningful recovery” without it. Fetal personhood is still on the books in Wyoming from 2023’s overturned “Life Is a Human Right Act”, but experts interviewed said that the murkiness of the bill’s language made it unclear if it would succeed at restricting abortion access – its intended purpose.
But Wyoming attorneys and healthcare law professionals at Boston University, George Washington University, Johns Hopkins and Pittsburgh University, say the problem is that a broad swath of healthcare procedures can be considered to cause “harm” by design.
“There’s a slew of medical procedures, surgeries, treatments that can have potentially positive outcomes but may also cause harm in the short period or as an unintended consequence,” the Wyoming attorney Abigail Fournier said.
“It’s scary to me, because I think it could be interpreted to be very limiting in terms of what healthcare providers can do.”
Wyoming’s constitutional right to healthcare stems from a 2012, voter-ratified constitutional amendment stating that “the right to make healthcare decisions is reserved to the citizens of the state of Wyoming”. Tom Lubnau, Wyoming attorney and former Republican speaker of the state house, helped author the amendment. He sees much of the current legislature as having “tunnel vision”, and a fixation on passing social issue legislation that ignores constitutionality.
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“Healthcare decisions are the individual’s in Wyoming. And that’s what the freedom amendment says,” Lubnau said. “Butt out of my decisions, and let me take care of myself.”
Lubnau sits on one side of Wyoming’s gaping Republican divide, which pits an older class of more moderate, establishment Republicans against the state’s further-right Freedom Caucus, who, this past election cycle, became the first Freedom Caucus chapter to take control of a state house.
The Freedom Caucus has wasted no time in pushing a mass of social issue bills that line up neatly with national conservative talking points. Among the focuses are dismantling DEI programming, strict definitions of gender, immigration restrictions and a glut of abortion restrictions.
The Boston University healthcare law professor Nicole Huberfeld has seen plenty of crafty attempts to restrict abortion access, such as transvaginal ultrasound requirements, or laws mandating abortion clinics meet the licensing requirements of ambulatory surgical centers.
But Huberfeld and other experts interviewed said that they had yet to encounter a bill looking to redefine healthcare entirely.
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Huberfeld will not be surprised if other states follow Wyoming’s lead, particularly those that have constitutional rights to healthcare.
“If they don’t have bills like this, I expect that they will take a page from Wyoming’s book and try the same thing,” Huberfeld said.
The George Washington University law professor Sonia Suter said the bill fit into a broader trend of taking away authority from medical professionals and putting it into the hands of politicians.
“There’s a lot less faith in professional expertise, scientists, medicine,” Suter said. “Legislators are coming in and trying to pass laws that are less about healthcare and more about some kind of moral agenda, religious agenda. This is a way to sort of give the legislature more power.”
When asked if any doctors or medical professionals were consulted in the authoring of the bill, Steinmetz said that she received the bill from an attorney, and was not sure who the attorney sourced input from. She said that the bills’ sponsors were aware of concerns about chemotherapy and other procedures – and that they would sort it out if the bill moved forward.
“We have the best of intentions, and sometimes bills start out a little rockier than others,” Steinmetz said.
Joanne Rosen, health law professor at Johns Hopkins University, is less worried with the intentions behind the bill, and more so with the effects of bills that seek to carve out abortion – and end up affecting less “controversial” forms of healthcare.
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“It has the effect of chilling physicians from administering medical treatment because they worry they may be in violation of the law. That’s a significant concern,” Rosen said.
While attorneys interviewed confirmed that voter referendums are necessary to make changes to Wyoming’s constitution, Steinmetz said that the bill did not seek to change the constitution – just a definition.
“Obviously it’s not spelled out in the constitution that abortion is healthcare, and so we can put limitations on that,” Steinmeitz said.
Still, Clark Stith, Wyoming attorney and former Republican state speaker pro tempore, is not sold.
“This bill, which purports to provide rules of construction of the Wyoming constitution, simply can’t do that,” Stith said. “A statute cannot change the meaning of words in the constitution. Period. End of story.”
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Stith also wondered why, if abortion is such a central priority, politicians put the abortion question in the hands of Wyoming’s voters.
“Why aren’t you bringing it as a proposed constitutional amendment?” Stith asked. “Why aren’t you bringing it as a joining resolution to get placed on the ballot?”
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.
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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.
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“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.