The NMHU Cowgirls won a decisive home conference game 85-67 against WNMU tonight 1/22. The Cowgirls started the game out slowly but soon caught fire behind Brianna Gholston's 11 first half points. The Cowgirls took the lead with 13 minutes left in the first half and never looked back. The Cowgirls were able to gain second half spark from star point guard
Whitley Coca as she added in 13 points in the half. The game saw an impressive five Cowgirls score in double digits including a double-double performance by
China Smith. The win boosts the Cowgirls in the RMAC with a conference record of 4-9 while ending up 8-12 in overall play.
Cowgirls Brianna Gholston and
Whitley Coca led the team in scoring with 15 points each. Gholston's outstanding first half performance helped the team gain and maintain the lead. She ended the night with six rebounds, two assists and a steal. Sophomore
Whitley Coca played a great game, especially in the second half where she scored all but two of her points. Coca also had six rebounds, one steal and a game leading seven assists in her 32 minutes on the court.
Marissa Magalei would add 14 points on the night to finish third amongst the teams scorers.
China Smith had an outstanding night accomplishing her second double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
The Cowgirls dominated the Mustangs on the court tonight shooting an impressive 54% from the field including 40% from three point range. The Cowgirls took the lead six minutes into the game and would not let go despite several efforts by WNMU to stage a comeback. The team also received valuable contributions off the bench from Magalei and
Ashley Godfrey who both added double digit scoring efforts on the night.
Head Coach Tiffany Darling considered Godfrey's defensive performance against the Mustangs as the spotlight of the night. Godfrey was tasked with guarding WNMU leading scorer Morgan Wohltman, an NCAA DI transfer from Idaho State, all night with successful results. Coach Darling was impressed with the total team effort tonight saying, “This is a big conference win for us, and especially in an interstate rivalry like the one we have with WNMU.” She noted the Mustangs attempts to comeback on the Cowgirls as an area of improvement for her young team mentioning that “This team needs to learn how to put their opponents away.” The Cowgirls played an impressive 40 minutes tonight and were able to come away with a big home win in the RMAC.
The NMHU women's basketball team will be in action again as they travel to Colorado for a conference road series against CSU-Pueblo and Univ. Colorado-Colorado Springs next weekend 1/28-29. The Cowgirls were able to defeat UC-Colo. Springs in their meeting in Las Vegas but lost a close game to CSU-Pueblo that same weekend. Tip-off is set at 6:00 pm for both road contests. If you can't make the trip up to Colorado to watch your Cowgirls in action, you can watch them LIVE on the America One Network. Click
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GO COWGIRLS!!!
