Cowgirls Host UNLV Wednesday in Front of National TV Audience

Photo by Troy Babbitt, UW Athletics

LARAMIE, Wyo. (March 3, 2025) – The Wyoming Cowgirls close the regular season in front of a nationally-televised audience Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m., as reigning Mountain West champion UNLV comes to town.

Wednesday’s game will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 and can be heard across the Cowgirl Radio Network with David Settle on the call.

ABOUT THE COWGIRLS

Wyoming (19-10, 13-4 MW) is coming off arguably its best win of the season Saturday on the road at Colorado State. The Cowgirls, who held CSU to just 22 second half points, rallied from a halftime deficit to win 68-55 in part two of this season’s Border War. Malene Pedersen led a balanced UW attack with 16 points while Allyson Fertig scored 14, grabbed 17 rebounds, tied a career-best with five assists and had two blocks on the night. McKinley Dickerson and Emily Mellema also finished in double digits with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Tess Barnes once again had a strong all-around game, recording eight points, four boards and five assists in the win. With the victory, the Cowgirls have locked in the No. 2 seed, thanks to tiebreakers, at next week’s Mountain West Championship in Las Vegas.

The Cowgirls, who are now allowing just 57.9 points per game during league play, also continue to lead the league in multiple other statistical categories. Wyoming’s 47.8-percent team field goal percentage is tops in the league, as is its 17.2 assists per game. The Cowgirls also rank third in the MW in 3-point percentage at 35.8-percent and in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.24. UW is second in rebounding margin with a plus-5.1. Since giving up a season-high 78 points in the loss at Boise State, the Cowgirls have surrendered just 45.7 points per game in each of their last three victories. Wyoming held Nevada (2/22) to a season-low 42 points, New Mexico (2/26) to a season-low 40 points and Colorado State (3/1) to a conference play season-low 55 points. Those three combined to shoot just 34.5-percent from the floor (50-145).

Fertig, who is one of just 25 student-athletes in the country this season to be averaging a double-double, leads the league during Mountain West play in scoring (19.7), rebounding (11.0), blocks (2.0) and field goal percentage (58.9-percent). In all games this season, Fertig leads the conference in all those categories except for blocks, where she is second. Fertig is also fifth in the league in minutes per game this season.

Pedersen, who remains 10th in the MW in scoring at 14.7 points per game, is still second in the conference in field goal percentage, trailing only Fertig as she shoots 53-percent from the floor in league action. Fertig and Pedersen’s combined points per game of 34.4 is the highest-scoring for a duo in the league this season. Pedersen is one of three Cowgirls in the top eight in the league in assists per this season. Ola Ustowska ranks fifth, averaging 3.5 per game, Mellema’s 3.2 a contest ranks sixth while Pedersen averages 2.9 a game and is tied for eighth. Mellema’s 2.2 steals per game is second-best in the Mountain West.

Wednesday will be Senior Night in Laramie, as six stellar Cowgirls will be honored prior to the game in Tess Barnes, McKinley Dickerson, Allyson Fertig, Joslin Igo, Emily Mellema and Ola Ustowska.

SCOUTING UNLV

The four-time reigning Mountain West Champions, UNLV, is led by a balanced offensive attack as five Lady Rebels average in double figures in scoring. Amarachi Kimpson leads the team in scoring at 13.5 points per game and is second 64 assists. Kiara Jackson is averaging 12.8 points a contest and leads the team with 150 assists and 41 steals. Jackson’s 5.2 assists per game leads the Mountain West. Aaliyah Alexander (11.1), McKinna Brackens (10.5) and Meadow Roland (10.3) all score in double figures as well. Alyssa Brown leads the team in rebounding at 7.7 a contest and has a team-best 35 blocks.

UNLV has the No. 1 scoring offense in the league and the No. 1 scoring margin in the MW. The Lady Rebels average 75.8 points per game and are allowing just 61.3 a contest. UNLV is shooting 44.6-percent from the floor and a league-leading 35.3-percent from 3-point range. Opponents are shooting just 39.2-percent overall and 32.4-percent from beyond-the-arc. UNLV leads the conference with 39.1 rebounds per game and a league-best plus-five rebounding margin. The Lady Rebels average 15.2 assists and just 11 turnovers per game. UNLV forces its opponents into nearly 15 turnovers a contest.

SERIES HISTORY AGAINST UNLV

UNLV leads the all-time series 32-28 and has won six consecutive in the series, dating back to February of 2022. Each of the past two contests between the two teams have gone into overtime. The Lady Rebels rallied to win 72-71 in OT earlier this season in Las Vegas. Prior to UNLV winning the last two games in Laramie, the Cowgirls had won eight in-a-row at home in the series.