LARAMIE, Wyoming -- November 11, 2016 -- The University of Wyoming (1-0) took 33 shots from long range on Friday night, hitting 13 of them for a rate of 39.4 percent on the night, as the Cowgirls rolled to a 74-50 opening night win over Chadron State College (0-1) in non-conference women's college basketball.
"We did what we were trying to do," said head women's basketball coach
Janet Raymer, "which is to cover up the inside. I didn't feel like we matched up well with them in size, so we were trying to cover up the middle. We did a pretty good job of that, We expected to put up with a few threes, and it kind of got out of hand on us. When we started to extend our zone, they started penetrating and it was tough to cover it all."
The Eagles, however, remained in the game throughout halftime, before being overwhelmed by a 23-7 third quarter which put the game out of reach. Chadron State never trailed by double digits in the first half and went into the locker at the midpoint down 34-27.
The Cowgirls came back in the second half and found 50 percent of their shots on target, with only 12 shots from three in the last two quarters combined.
CSC, meanwhile shot a respectable 42.3% in the first half before tapering off down the stretch.
Senior guard
Erin Graham came up big for Chadron State, knocking down 8-of-16 field goals, grabbing a team-high eight boards, including four on the offensive end, and swiping a pair of steals. She was the game's leading scorer with 20 points.
Redshirt freshman
Kylah Collins, coming back from a concussion, was also key with nine points and five rebounds in only 19 minutes played.
Senior forward
Maddie Metzger recorded seven points and grabbed five rebounds.
"It was a good first time out for us," added Raymer. "It showed us a picture of the future and what we might be able to do. We have two weeks until our next game. We'll take the weekend off and regroup on Monday."
Summary by Quarters:
                                   1       2       3       4        T
Chadron State         13       14      7     16       50
Wyoming Cowgirls     19       15       23       17       74
