Cowgirls Host Cornhuskers in Friday Night Tilt

* University of Wyoming press release

LARAMIE -- The Wyoming Cowgirl basketball team hosts Big Ten foe Nebraska Friday night at 6:30 inside the Arena-Auditorium. Friday’s contest is a Gold Rush as fans are encouraged to wear gold to the game.

The first 500 fans in attendance will receive a free Gold Rush t-shirt.

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Friday’s contest will be broadcast on the Mountain West Network and can be heard on some stations on the Cowgirl Radio Network that isn’t preempted by Cowboy football at UNLV. David Settle will be on the radio call.

ABOUT THE COWGIRLS
The Cowgirls (1-0) opened the season Monday with a 77-60 win over North Dakota in Laramie. UW outscored the Fighting Hawks 20-7 in the fourth quarter and held UND to just 3-of-16 from the field in the frame and closed the game forcing nine misses in North Dakota’s final 10 shots. Wyoming shot 6-of-13 from the floor and went 8-for-8 at the free-throw line in the last 10 minutes.

Allyson Fertig led the Cowgirls with her 20th career double-double in the win. Fertig scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and now sits just outside the top 10 in program history for career double-doubles. Fertig also added a pair of blocks and went a perfect 8-for-8 at the free-throw line. Kati Ollilainen and Emily Mellema also scored in double figures in the win, scoring 14 and 10, respectively.

Maren McKenna, Ollilainen and Madi Symons all made their Cowgirl debuts Monday and made instant impacts. In addition to her 14 points, Ollilainen made two of UW’s three 3-pointers in the game and added an assist and a steal. McKenna pulled down a rebound against UND while Symons made her only field goal attempt while tallying three boards.

Tess Barnes added nine points and dished out a career-high seven assists Monday while McKinley Dickerson had eight points and a pair of assists in her first game since the 2021-22 season. Malene Pedersen added six points and four assists off the bench.

SCOUTING NEBRASKA
The Cornhuskers enter Friday coming off an impressive 90-42 victory Monday in their season opener against Northwestern State. Nebraska was led by 2022-23 All-Big Ten honoree Jaz Shelley’s 17 points on 5-of-10 shooting overall from the floor and 3-of-6 from 3-point range. Shelley also dished out six assists in the win. A total of six Huskers scored in double figures in the win as Alexis Markowski, Annika Stewart and Darian White posted 13 points each. White also led Nebraska with nine rebounds while Stewart had a pair of blocks to lead the team. Callin Hake and Natalie Potts added 12 and 10 points, respectively.

Nebraska shot 42.6-percent from the field and made 10-of-32 from beyond-the-arc in the contest. The Cornhuskers held Northwestern State to just 22-percent shooting overall and also out-rebounded the Demons 51-33 while forcing 21 turnovers. Shelley and Stewart were both named to the Preseason All-Big Ten team back in October. The Huskers went 18-15 and 8-10 in the Big Ten a season ago while posting a 4-9 record on the road.

SERIES HISTORY AGAINST NEBRASKA
The Cowgirls are in search of their first win in the series with the Cornhuskers. Wyoming is 0-8 all-time in the series, with three of those losses coming in Laramie. This will be Nebraska’s first trip to the Arena-Auditorium since March of 2006 during the WNIT. The Huskers have beaten UW each of the past two seasons in Lincoln. In two career games against the Cornhuskers, Fertig is averaging 10 points and seven rebounds. Two seasons ago, Dickerson had nine points and a pair of assists in the loss in Lincoln.

From Bison to Triceratops - All of Wyoming's Official Things

Every state in our nation has chosen things that represent the state in one way or another to be official state things. Like a flower, or animal. Wyoming is no different.

The Equality State, or the Cowboy State, depending on which state slogan you want to go with, has a state flower. But did you know we also have a state tree and a state fish? Yes, we even have a state code.

To be an official thing, a member of the state legislature must write and submit a bill to the legislature declaring that a thing will be the official state thing. Then the legislature votes to pass the bill, or not, if it passes, the governor signs the bill into law and we have a new official state thing.

Here is what we have so far, all of Wyoming's official things. Now you can win big on Wyo Trivia Night if that's a thing that exists.

Gallery Credit: Ben Kuhns

- From Bison to Triceratops - All of Wyoming's Official Things