(Fort Collins, CO) – The Wyoming Cowgirl basketball team is set for round two of the 2024 Border War Saturday, as they travel south to face Colorado State Saturday in a 12:30 p.m., contest. Wyoming won the first meeting earlier this season, 67-63 in Laramie back on January 20.
Saturday’s game will be broadcast live on the Mountain West Network and can be heard across the Cowgirl Radio Network with David Settle on the call. In Fremont County, catch it on KOVE 1330 AM / 107.7 FM.
ABOUT WYOMING
The Cowgirls (14-9, 9-3 MW) are looking to bounce back from their previous outing, a 56-42 loss at Boise State last Saturday. Malene Pedersen scored a game-high 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the floor in the loss. Off the bench, Marta Savic also scored in double figures as she finished with 10 points.
Pedersen, who ranks second on the team in scoring, is up to 10.7 points per game overall and 10.6 points per game in league play on nearly 47-percent shooting from the floor. Allyson Fertig leads the Cowgirls averaging 13.4 points per game in all games and 12.6 points per and 8.3 rebounds a contest in Mountain West action. Fertig is shooting a league-leading 61-percent from the floor in MW play and 59.2-percent overall for the season. Emily Mellema leads UW with 64 assists and 33 steals on the year.
In the first meeting this season with the Rams, Mellema scored a career-high 25 points and made seven 3-pointers in the win. The seven made threes are tied for the second-most in a single game in program history. Fertig finished the game with 16 points and nine boards against CSU on 6-of-9 from the floor.
SCOUTING COLORADO STATE
Colorado State is led by the reigning Mountain West Player of the Year, McKenna Hofschild, who leads the league in both scoring (23.6 PPG) and assists (7.3 APG). Hofschild, who is a finalist for the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award, is shooting 48-percent from the floor overall and 41-percent from 3-point range. Hofschild also leads the Rams with 28 steals and has a 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Sydney Mech and Hannah Ronsiek rank second and third, respectively on the team in scoring with 8.3 and 7.9 points per game, respectively. Ronsiek leads CSU in rebounding at 5.8 per game.
As a team, Colorado State is averaging just under 70 points per game and is allowing 61.5 a contest. The Rams shoot 44.2-percent as a team from the floor and 36.3-percent from 3-point range. Rams opponents shoot 37-percent and 29.4-percent from beyond-the-arc. CSU averages just nine turnovers per game and is being outrebounded by nearly nine boards per contest. The Rams have committed 100 fewer turnovers per game than its opponents on the year.
SERIES HISTORY AGAINST COLORADO STATE
Wyoming’s win over the Rams earlier this season broke a 56-56-all tie in program history between the two programs. The Cowgirls, who have lost four straight in Fort Collins, are in search of their first win on the road in the series since February of 2020, a 43-40 victory. In seven career games against CSU, Fertig is averaging a double-double of 11.1 points and 10.1 rebounds a game.