Boise State
8-7, 2-2MW
Wyoming
9-5, 2-1MW
Hot Wyoming Shooting Beats Broncos
1/6/2018 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
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BOISE, Idaho - After a promising start to Saturday's contest, Boise State was outscored, 28-10, by Wyoming over the final 15 minutes of the first half as the Cowgirls went on to a 66-51 victory at Taco Bell Arena.
The Broncos (8-7, 2-2 MW) opened 4-of-7 from the field and led the Cowgirls, 8-5, after Marta Hermida's third basket with 5:56 left in the opening quarter. But things would stall for the Boise State offense for the remainder of the half, as the Broncos managed just one more field goal the rest of the first quarter, and went just 3-for-16 in the second. Wyoming, meanwhile, hit its first five attempts from 3-point range, led by three from Marta Gomez and two from Liv Roberts, and took advantage of Bronco foul trouble, going 7-for-10 from the line, to spur a 28-10 stretch over the final 15 minutes of the half and take a 32-18 lead.
For the day, Wyoming went 10-for-16 from behind the arc, with Roberts, Gomez, and Taylor Rusk going a combined 9-for-14.
"We didn't execute very well offensively, you take a run or two with bad shots, and then they control the pace. They controlled the whole pace of the game," said Boise State head coach Gordy Presnell. "The first time you fall behind, the rim shrinks a little bit, and all of a sudden you are missing shots that you thought you could hit. It just steamrolls like that, all the while they were taking twenty seconds off the shot clock with each possession."
Roberts started the Cowgirl run with a 3-ball to tie it up at 8-8 with 5:03 left in the quarter, and, nearly four minutes later, with the Cowgirls ahead 11-8, Gomez scored five-straight points to get the lead up to 16-8 before A'Shanti Coleman snapped Boise State's 4:37 drought with a jumper.
Gomez, who finished the day with 11 points, opened the second quarter with two more treys, and Marleah Campbell added a pair of free throws to stretch the Cowgirl lead to 14 at 24-10 with 7:29 left in the half. The lead was 26-10 before Tess Amundsen's trey got the Broncos on the board in the quarter with 5:04 to go before the break, and a 3-pointer from Hermida looked to give the Broncos some life, making it 27-16 with 3:55 on the clock.
The Broncos cut the Cowgirl lead to 10 at 28-18 before Roberts scored the final four points of the half. Roberts would go on to finish the game 9-for-9 from the field for a game-high 25 points.
In the second half, Boise State looked at times poised to make a run at the Cowgirls, getting to within 10 at 33-23 in the third quarter, and twice pulling to within nine late in the fourth, but each time, Wyoming had an answer. After Shalen Shaw hit two free throws to make it 33-23 with 8:03 to go in the third, Wyoming got six-straight points from Roberts over the next 2:06 to get its lead back to 16.
Trailing by 15 with 4:19 to go, Boise State pulled to within nine at 58-49 thanks to consecutive 3-point plays from Brooke Wheeler and Ellie Woerner, and again after Tess Amundsen answered a Roberts layup with two free throws with 2:54 to play. But Rusk would punctuate her 12-point half by hitting back-to-back 3-pointers to ice the game for Wyoming. Rusk would end up 4-for-5 from distance over the final 20 minutes.
"It seemed like we were not ready to compete as hard as they were today, that's a bad feeling," Hermida said. "At the end we tried hard, but in order to win we need to try that hard for 40 minutes. We need to play as a team."
Hermida and Riley Lupfer each finished with 11 points to lead the Broncos. Amundsen scored eight while going 2-for-2 from behind the arc.
Boise State will finish the two-game homestand Wednesday (Jan. 10) against Fresno State at 7 p.m.
