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Head coach Ryun Williams became the all-time wins leader in Colorado State women’s basketball history as the Rams defeated the Wyoming Cowgirls, 64-53, in a Wednesday night Border War matchup from Arena Auditorium.
Williams, the sixth-year Ram head coach and two-time Mountain West Coach of the Year, earns his 130th win at the helm of CSU women’s basketball to pass former coaching great Tom Collen, who won 129 games as head coach of the Rams from 1997-2002. Williams is only the third coach in school history with 100 or more wins at CSU, and has by far the most conference wins in program history (77).
Colorado State (15-7, 7-4 MW) was paced offensively once again by senior guard Hannah Tvrdy, who poured in 25 points on 10-for-14 shooting (4-for-4 three-point shooting) and corralled eight rebounds. Freshman center Liah Davis tallied 12 points off the bench on 6-for-7 shooting, while freshman guard Jordyn Edwards added 10 bench points. For the game, CSU shot 50 percent and held a 30-5 advantage in bench scoring as well as a 36-16 scoring edge in the paint. The Rams held Wyoming to 36.2 percent shooting on the defensive end.
CSU led Wyoming (14-6, 7-2 MW) for the vast majority of the game, holding the lead for 34:11 on Wednesday compared to just 1:32 of lead time for the Cowgirls. The Rams led for the entirety of the first quarter and much of the second; however, the game was close throughout and the lead changed hands once in the second quarter and three times in the third before a dominant closing period for CSU.
The Rams retook the lead for the final time on a layup by Lore Devos to beat the third quarter buzzer and gave CSU a 44-43 advantage heading to the fourth. CSU missed its first two shots to open the final period, but made its next four from there, as Devos, Edwards and Tvrdy combined for a 10-0 run to put the Rams up, 54-43, with six minutes to play.
Wyoming looked to be back in the mix after cutting the CSU lead to 58-53 with 2:10 remaining, but Tvrdy responded with a layup on the Rams’ next possession and turned over the Cowgirls on their next respective possession to tack on a second layup and make it 62-53 with 1:27 to go. Wyoming was forced to foul late after missed field goals on its next two possessions, and Edwards sunk both free throws on the other end to seal the 64-53 win.
Featured Image Credit: Colorado State Athletics