Cowgirls Prepare for Aggies in WNIT First Round [VIDEO]
Post-season play arrives for the Wyoming Cowgirls Thursday when they face New Mexico State in the first round of the WNIT in Laramie.
The game will start at 6:30 p.m. from the Arena-Auditorium. It features a match-up of two teams that haven’t faced each other in women’s basketball since March 1, 1990. That was a UW victory, 69-64. It was also when both schools were in the same conference together, the High Country Athletic Conference (HCAC), for women’s hoops.
Wyoming (21-10) is making its’ eighth appearance in the WNIT and for the seventh time under head coach Joe Legerski. He said they’re thankful for this opportunity.
“This group ended up not just resting on their success last season, but wanted to come back and do it again.”
He’s particularly excited for senior Liv Roberts, who will be playing in her first post-season tournament. She missed last year’s WNIT with a knee injury.
Roberts said, “Being able to play this year, because I haven’t been able to play any year, is definitely something I’m super, super excited about, and super thankful for. I think just as a team we’re excited that we were good enough this whole entire season to be able to continue on in to post-season play.”
Fellow senior Natalie Baker is also happy she gets to extend her career in the brown and gold. She visited with KOWB’s David Settle about this opportunity and what she learned from last year.
Their opponent will be New Mexico State, which is 18-12 on the season. The Aggies won the WAC regular season title, but like Wyoming, lost last week in their conference tournament semifinals.
Coach Legerski says they’ll play a fast-paced game.
“I’ve had an opportunity to watch ‘em a couple times this year, when they’ve been on TV. They’re very talented, and as I said, the pace of the game will be something that we’re going to have to control. Once again, you’re going to see a great deal of dribble-drive, and that’s always a challenge for us.”
The Aggies are led by junior Brooke Salas at 19 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. Sophomore Gia Pack contributes 15.9 points and 7.7 rebounds a game. They are led by first-year head coach Brooke Atkinson, who knows Wyoming from her time as an assistant at Colorado State.
Legerski also mentioned that New Mexico State plays with 5-10 and 5-11 post players and with smaller perimeter players, which creates some defensive match-up problems for the Cowgirls.
The game starts at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. KOWB will air the broadcast beginning at 6 p.m.