By Staff
LARAMIE, Wyo. — Four Cowgirls recorded double-figures to lead the Wyoming basketball team to a 49-point win, 90-41, over the Adams State Grizzlies on Thursday night. The game featured the four-quarter format for women’s basketball this season.
“I thought for an exhibition game it went a little better than we planned going in,” UW head coach Joe Legerski said. “During a sequence in the first quarter, we had to tell Marquelle (Dent) to slow it down so that the two freshmen and two sophomores out there with her are in the right spot. I thought that she and Jordan (Kelley) provided senior leadership. Each person out there tonight gave us tremendous effort. Liv Roberts had good energy with her ten point, seven rebound effort, and in the post it was nice to have Bailee Cotton back. We were also able to get our younger players valuable minutes, but our youth definitely shows.”
In the third quarter Cowgirls increased the lead to 27, 55-28, with a 16-5 run. A three-point field goal at the buzzer by Liv Roberts made it a 62-31 lead heading in to the final period. Wyoming continued to play solid on the offensive side of the ball out scoring the Grizzlies 28-10 in the fourth quarter. Freshmen Rachelle Tucker and Tijana Raca paced the Cowgirls with 10 and 8 points respectively to help UW go onto the 90-41 victory.
Tucker was one of 11 Cowgirls to get into the scoring column. She finished the night with 14 points, shooting 4-of-7 from the field and 6-of-6 from beyond the arc. Senior Marquelle Dent finished with 12 points while fellow freshmen Marta Gomez added 11 points and a team-high nine boards. Senior Jordan Kelley also added nine points and nine rebounds. Wyoming shot 26-of-60 (.433) from the field and 32-of-42 (.762) from the free throw line. The Cowgirls out rebounded the Grizzlies 56-22 and had 18 assists on 26 made baskets.
Adams State was led by Cydney McHenry with a team-high nine points plus three rebounds. Johnette Brown and DeShea Wilkes each added seven points while Cardelia Allen had a team-high four rebounds. The Grizzlies were 15-of-53 (.283) from the field and 1-of-13 (.077) from beyond the arc.
Gomez hit the first basket of the game which started a 7-2 run for the Cowgirls. After a jumper by Lauren McDonald, UW scored the final 16 of 24 points in the quarter to give them a 23-11 advantage. The second quarter saw the two teams combined for just seven points in the first four minutes and 21 the remainder of the way as the Cowgirls took a 39-23 lead going into the locker room.
Gomez led all scorers with eight points headed into the half followed by Roberts with seven and three others with six. Roberts and Kelley each brought down six rebounds. Adams State was led by Wilkes with seven points. The Cowgirls shot 11-of-34 (.324) from the field and recorded 33 rebounds.
