by LOGAN, Utah – Utah State women’s basketball defeated defending Mountain West champions Wyoming 76-66 on Saturday afternoon inside the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
“It’s really big for us and for our program,” head coach Kayla Ard said. “Wyoming won the tournament last year and got to go to the NCAA Tournament. That’s huge for us. We’ve been in a drought. We haven’t been playing very well and things haven’t been going our way. I’ve been telling our players to trust the process and keep fighting. We haven’t really been talking about winning and losing. It’s just trust the process. We’re getting there. I’ve been telling the girls that we’ve been going in an upward direction. I’m so proud of them and so happy for them that they got this win and that it paid off in the way that they wanted it to. They finally got that. I’m just really happy for them.”
Wyoming, which won the 2021 MW Tournament, took an early 7-3 lead, but the Aggies closed out the first quarter with a 20-5 run to lead 23-12 at the end of the period. USU was hot from behind the arc in the first stanza, knocking down six of its 13 3-pointers in the quarter. Senior guard/forward E’Lease Stafford (Navajo) got things started for Utah State with three big triples in the first.
The Cowgirls (6-9, 2-4 MW) trimmed the lead to two twice in the second quarter, but the Aggies (6-12, 1-7 MW) held onto their edge to lead 40-35 heading into the halftime break.
Utah State came out strong in the third quarter to extend its lead 52-37 with 6:39 to play following 3-pointers from Stafford and junior guard Shyla Latone, (Zuni) a jumper from junior guard/forward Adryana Quezada and free throws from senior guard Emmie Harris. Wyoming cut the lead back down to eight, but a layup from Quezada as time expired gave USU the double-digit lead going into the fourth, 57-47.
Wyoming cut the lead to 68-62 with just under a minute-and-a-half remaining. However, Stafford, senior guard Kaylin Randhawa and Harris went a combined 8-for-8 from the line in the final 1:25 to help secure the 76-66 conference victory.
