Cowgirls Dominate UNLV at Home

A balanced attack led the University of Wyoming Cowgirl basketball team past the UNLV Lady Rebels, 77-56, in the Arena Auditorium on Saturday.  Four different Cowgirls scored in double figures.  Chaundra Sewell led all scorers with 17 points and 7 assists, while Aubrey Vandiver posted 16 points and 12 rebounds, Hillary Carlson added 15 points and 6 rebounds, and Ashley Sickles put up 10 points.

"This group come out and once again demonstrates it's about team.  We have 21 assists on 23 field goals, I had four players in double digits. Everyone's sharing the basketball." -Head Coach Joe Legerski

Wyoming (21-6, 11-3) jumped out to a 7-0 lead, but then got stuck on 9 points for three and a half minutes while UNLV (10-19, 3-12) tied the game at 9 on a couple of free throws from freshman Ta'Nitra Byrd with 11:13 left in the first half. Sickles ended the scoring drought when she sank her first of three consecutive 3's with 10:16 before halftime.  Bec Campigli also hit a couple of 3's as Wyoming went on a 14-6 run over the next four minutes, putting Wyoming up 23-15.  Then the Cowgirls hit their free throws and held UNLV to just 2 points in the final 4:48 of the half to take a 34-21 lead into halftime.  Half of Wyoming's first half points came off the bench as Hillary Carlson only played nine minutes because of foul trouble.

In the second half UNLV tried to slow down the Cowgirls by switching to a zone defense, but UW simply added to their lead throughout the second half by shooting 54 percent from the field and out-rebounding the Lady Rebels 18-13.  UNLV never got closer than 11 points and the Cowgirls picked up a 77-56 win in front of the home crowd.

UW shot 45 percent from the field, 38.5 percent from 3-point range and 87.5 percent from the free throw line.  They grabbed 38 rebounds to UNLV's 30.

Byrd led UNLV with 16 points in just 20 minutes of play, followed by Kelli Thompson with 15 points and Jamie Smith with 8 points and 11 rebounds.  The lady Rebels shot just 38 percent in the game, 8 percent from beyond the arc and 61 percent from the free throw line.

An away game is on tap next for the Cowgirls, who will travel to San Diego State on Wednesday, March 2nd for an 8:00 p.m. game.  Coverage will be on KOWB starting at 7:30 p.m.