Working at stopping the opposition
Better defensive play has paid off for Cowgirls
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Over the past few seasons, the University of Wyoming Cowgirls basketball team took more of a “let’s try to outscore the opposition” approach rather than “let’s try to stop the opposition” stance.
Having two of the most prolific scorers and 3-point shooters in program history, that approach made sense.
The 2015-16 Cowgirls have been built a little differently. More attention has been paid to the defensive side of the ball this season, and it’s in part helped the Cowgirls to a 5-3 start to the season.
And it’s not necessarily that Wyoming’s defensive numbers jump out at you. The Cowgirls are fifth in the Mountain West in scoring defense (61.6 points per game) and seventh in field goal percentage defense (41.7 percent).
But when the Cowgirls have needed stops on the defensive end, they’ve found ways to get them. In Saturday’s 68-61 win over Montana, UW held the Lady Griz scoreless over the final 1:53 on five possessions after Montana had pulled within 63-61.
Against the University of Denver, Wyoming limited the Pioneers to 3 of 11 shooting from the field in the third quarter to help turn a 27-27 tie into a 45-36 lead.
“We knew we had to become better defensively,” UW coach Joe Legerski said. “The last few years we were very good offensively, and the defensive side of the basketball was second in importance. That’s flipped this year. We know night in and night out it’s going to be a possession-by-possession game.
“We’re able to stay in games because of our defense and find enough offense to get things done.”
A big difference this year for Wyoming has been the ability to move 5-foot-9 senior Jordan Kelley from a post player last year to a wing position this season. Add in 5-11 sophomore Liv Roberts’ presence in the starting lineup, and the Cowgirls have better defensive matchups.
“It’s a huge difference for us this year,” UW senior guard Marquelle Dent said. “Coach (Legerski) came to us at the beginning of the year and said that we needed to get better on the defensive end and we’ve put a lot of work to do that. We’re in every game and that has a lot to do with the defense we’re playing.”
Dent leads the team this season in steals with 14 and is No. 13 all-time at Wyoming with 137 thefts on her career.
The 5-7 point guard added that being good on the defensive end has helped the offense, too.
“We like to push the ball and we can’t do that unless we get stops defensively,” she said. “That’s been our mindset the whole year. We’re saying every time we go down the floor to get a stop and it helps our offense we when do that.”
The Cowgirls will face one of their biggest defensive challenges on Saturday when they host Montana State at 5 p.m. at the Arena-Auditorium.
The Bobcats average 70.4 points a game and shoot 44.3 percent from the field.
“A big plus for us on how we’ve been able to defend and Montana State’s going to create some real issues for us,” Legerski said. “We’ll have to play very well on the defensive end to have a chance.”
