LARAMIE – The final shot of the game by the relentless visitors was an air ball.
And after 40 excruciating minutes the crowd of 2,333 at the Arena-Auditorium finally exhaled in unison.
Wyoming 66, Air Force 63.
After a wild sequence in the final 30 seconds, the Cowgirls (11-7, 6-1) escaped with a regular season sweep of the aggressive Falcons (9-11, 2-5) on Wednesday night.
Now the Cadets can make life miserable for other Mountain West teams.
“That’s what I’m thinking. Man, I’m glad we’re done with them,” UW head coach Heather Ezell said. “I don’t think their record does them justice. Being 2-5, that’s not a 2-5 team out there. That’s a team that’s going to compete and you’re going to see a lot more of Air Force through the second half of conference play.”
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The Cowgirls had a three-point lead and the basketball when Air Force forced a jump ball with 26.8 seconds left to take possession.
UW forced a missed 3-pointer but was unable to secure the rebound. During another mad scramble, Ola Ustowska was whistled for a foul with 18.5 seconds left.
The Falcons shooters were blanketed outside the arc on the ensuing possession, which ended with Keelie O’Hollaren’s desperation 3 coming up well short of the target.
“Definitely intense,” Malene Pedersen said of grinding out the win. “We really needed to just stay composed there and Coach really emphasized take it easy, we got this, be solid now and don’t let them shoot a 3 and don’t foul. It was hard, though.”
Air Force, which is now 0-33 all-time in Laramie, appeared to be on the verge of a historic road win for three quarters.
Then Allyson Fertig accidentally put the ball in the Falcons’ basket after a rebound slipped through her grasp and went in to give the visitors a 54-51 lead early in the fourth quarter.
UW’s 6-foot-4 center made up for the fluky miscue by scoring her team’s next four baskets to give the Cowgirls leads of 55-54, 57-56, 59-58 and 60-59.
“Ola and our other players did well just throwing it up there so I could go get it because we had the height advantage,” said Fertig, who scored 11 of her 21 points in the fourth quarter. “I thought they did a very good job of recognizing there was a height advantage there, and I just had to go get it and be strong with it because I knew three people were going to come crashing on me.”
Alexis Cortez completed a tough three-point play to tie the score 63-63.
Fertig made a free throw and then added another clutch field goal to extend the lead to three points with 44 seconds left.
The Cowgirls hung on tightly the rest of the way.
“It wasn’t the best game. We can all agree on that,” said Pedersen, who drew eight fouls and was 11-for-11 from the free-throw line with 15 points. “But at the end we found it again and stayed solid and were on the same page. I think it says a lot about our team and what we have to bring for each other.”
UW finished with 14 turnovers that led to 13 points for Air Force, which was forcing 19.5 turnovers per game on average.
Ustowska finished with seven assists with most of the dimes being dropped into Fertig during crunch time.
“I was so nervous,” Fertig said of the final moments. “It was just crazy with the jump ball calls and everything. So many emotions. I’m just glad we finally finished it.”
The Cowgirls were 4-for-13 (30.8%) from the field in the first quarter and trailed 20-6 after giving up a deep 3 to Alexis Cortez at the buzzer.
Air Force lead by five points on two occasions early in the second quarter before McKinley Dickerson finished a 9-0 run with a three-point play to give UW a 32-27 edge.
But the Falcons finished the half with a 7-0 run to take a 39-34 lead at the intermission. Milahnie Perry, who had 10 points in the first meeting, matched that total at the break.
Air Force shot 50% from the field through 20 minutes. UW stayed in range by making 14-of-16 free throws; Pedersen was 9-for-9 at the stripe.
The Falcons were 6-for-11 on 3s in the first half while the Cowgirls missed all six of their attempts.
Tess Barnes ended the drought from deep with back-to-back 3s to start the third quarter. Emily Mellema added another deep ball and then converted a steal into a layup to tie the score 47-47.
Taylor Britt hit a corner 3 at the horn to give Air Force a 52-51 lead at the end of the third quarter.
“The beginning of the game we were kind of like, oh, we’ve already beat them,” Fertig said. UW won the first meeting 68-51 victory on Jan. 6 at Clune Arena. “I think we relaxed and just weren’t very aggressive like we were at Air Force. In the second half our mindset changed to we have to be the aggressor, they’re not going away, they don’t back down, that’s just who they are, and we’ve got to step up ourselves.”
The Cowgirls will play at Fresno State at 2 p.m. Saturday before the first of two showdowns with UNLV on Jan. 31 in Las Vegas.
Follow UW beat writer Ryan Thorburn on Twitter @By_RyanThorburn
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