Wyoming’s Emma Langford scored a career-high 29 points in the Cowgirls’ 68-57 overtime victory over Texas Tech in the second round of the WNIT Tuesday night in Laramie.
Her final three points came on a 3-pointer with 45.1 seconds left in overtime. It gave the Cowgirls an 65-57 lead and certainly secured the victory, if it weren’t already.
It was a similar scenario as what happened in the men’s NCAA Tournament last week when Northern Iowa guard Ali Farokhmanesh made a 3-pointer late in the contest with his team ahead and with a chance to run out the clock against top-seeded Kansas. That shot secured Northern Iowa’s 69-67 victory and advanced it to the Sweet 16.
“Everybody’ has been talking about Northern Iowa and the 3-point shot that was made that put them over the hump,” UW coach Joe Legerski said Wednesday. “As a coach you would like to see a little more clock go down, especially in a foul situation because we were going to go to the foul line. But you never want a player to be hesitant. That’s probably more important than whether it was a good shot or a bad shot. She did not hesitate to take that shot. When you have that kind of confidence I’ll have you shoot that ball all the time.”
“You can see how high her confidence was when she took the shot with 45 seconds left (in overtime) when we were up five. She had the confidence to knock that 3 down. … It made life a little easier in the last 30 seconds.”
Legerski was pleased with Langford’s play throughout the game, which also included seven rebounds and three assists.
“She was making 3s, she was getting to the basket, she had her mid-range game working. When she has all phases offensively going, she’s very difficult to contain,” he added.
See Thursday’s Wyoming Tribune Eagle for more on the Cowgirls, including a game preview of Thursday’s third-round WNIT game with Brigham Young in Laramie and my column on how Langford is one of several players to step their game up in numerous ways for the Cowgirls recently.
Also, I will live blog Thursday’s game with BYU. We will start around 6:45 p.m. Join me for the fun at http://wyomingcowboysblog.com/2010/03/24/live-blog-cowgirls-vs-byu-wnit-tournament/
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