Cowgirls falter in the fourth in loss at Boise State

* University of Wyoming Athletics media relations release

BOISE, Idaho, -- A poor fourth quarter doomed the Wyoming Cowgirl basketball team Wednesday night in Boise, Idaho as the Cowgirls fell, 70-59 on the road to Boise State. UW led for much of the game’s first three quarters but was outscored by 17 (28-11) in the fourth.

Wyoming entered the fourth quarter up by six points, but the Broncos would score six of the first eight points in the fourth, cutting the UW lead down to 50-48 with under eight minutes to play. Boise would continue to find its rhythm on offense in the fourth, hitting five consecutive shots and taking a 58-56 lead with under five minutes left.

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The Cowgirls had a pair of good looks from three to take the lead coming out of the fourth quarter media timeout but couldn’t get either shot to fall. Down at the other end, BSU would then get a three-point play to go and pushed the lead to 61-56, the largest lead of the game for the Broncos.

Allyson Fertig would hit a pair at the line next trip down, but that was as close as Wyoming would get the rest of the way. Boise State would salt the game away at the free-throw line, hitting five in the final 1:05.

UW went scoreless the final 5:08 of the contest as the Broncos closed on a 14-3 run from that point on. Boise hit 8-of-10 shots down the stretch and forced four Cowgirl turnovers the final 3:36 of the game.

The Cowgirls scored on their first possession of the game, but struggled to get the offense going after that, going on a near-four-minute scoring drought before Fertig’s layup ended the scoreless rut. Both teams started settling in offensively later in the quarter as the game was tied 10-10 at the media timeout. Wyoming would score the first five points coming out of the timeout and led 15-12 after one.

Boise State opened the second with five straight points and went on an 8-2 run to take a 20-17 lead with 7:23 remaining in the quarter. McKinley Bradshaw’s 3-pointer with 4:51 left in the frame regained the lead for the Cowgirls, 21-20, a lead they would keep the rest of the half. The two teams traded body blows the rest of the way in the physical first half as UW did a lot of its offensive damage at the free-throw line and led 30-26 at halftime.

Wyoming hit 12-of-14 at the charity stripe in the first two quarters while the Broncos went just 1-of-3 at the line.

Bradshaw opened the second half with a Bradshaw 3-pointer to go up by seven, but the Broncos hit five of their first seven shots to open the third quarter and tied things up at 36-36 with 6:30 to go.

After that, UW would respond with five consecutive points and carried a 41-36 lead into the media timeout with 3:53 remaining in the quarter. The Cowgirls would lead by as many as six points, multiple times later in the third, but Boise State wouldn’t let the lead extend too far out as UW led 48-42 after three.

UW was led by Bradshaw’s third consecutive 20-plus-point effort as she scored 22 on 6-of-13 from the floor and went 3-for-6 from 3-point range while making seven free throws. A trio of Cowgirls also scored in double figures as Grace Ellis, Fertig and Quinn Weidemann all had 11 points. Ellis, who was a perfect 7-of-7 at the free-throw line, recorded her first-career double-double as she grabbed a game-and career-high 10 rebounds.

Wyoming shot just under 33 percent (17-of-52) from the floor but went 3-of-10 in the fourth. The Cowgirls went just 5-for-24 from beyond-the-arc in the loss and hit 20-of-24 at the line.

Boise State meanwhile ended up at nearly 44 percent for the game, thanks to a 9-for-13 effort in the fourth. The Broncos hit 2-of-9 from 3-point range and made 12-of-16 free throws.

The Broncos had a 15-6 advantage in points off turnovers, committing seven fewer miscues than the Cowgirls. BSU also outscored UW 38-22 in the paint and 11-8 in second-chance points.

UW looks to rebound in its road swing January 22 as the Cowgirls travel to face Utah State in Logan at 2 p.m.

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