I don’t think the majority of the 7,142 fans at the Arena-Auditorium tonight thought their Wyoming Cowgirls would lose to Mountain West Conference rival Brigham Young in the third round of the WNIT.

But thanks to some huge 3-point shots and 13 second-chance points, BYU defeated UW 67-63.

The Cowgirls’ season ends at 21-12. BYU improved to 23-9 and advance to the quarterfinals.

UW made 17 of 21 free throws, but a big miss late by junior Aubrey Vandiver really hurt the Cowgirls.

And after an air ball on a 3-point attempt, BYU got a big offensive rebound and scored.

But it wouldn’t be fair to blame one person or one play in a game like this. This was a game between two pretty good teams and BYU simply made a few more plays.

And they should provide some good games next season. UW has no seniors and BYU has just one.

Like shooting 8 of 15 from 3-point range, shooting 48.1 percent and outscoring UW’s bench 27-7.

The Cowgirls were led by Vandiver’s 20 points and 11 rebounds. Hillary Carlson added 18 and Emma Langford had 15.

Coriann Wood came off the bench and had 18 for BYU.

For more on this game, see Friday’s Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

And if you want to talk more about this game, UW football or anything UW sports related join me at 10:30 a.m. Friday for a live chat. Here is the direct link: http://wyomingcowboysblog.com/2010/03/23/live-chat-spring-football-2010/

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/

If the Wyoming women’s basketball team beats Nevada tonight in the first round of the WNIT, it will play Texas Tech in the second round.

The date, time and place of that game has not been determined. UW athletics director Tom Burman, who is at the NCAA Wrestling Championships in Omaha, Neb., told me via text message that the second-round game likely will be Tuesday, but they won’t know until after the game where the game will be.

Here is a story on Texas Tech’s 80-77 home win over Houston Thursday night in the WNIT first round.

http://www.redraiders.com/2010/03/18/lady-raiders-beat-houston-to-advance-to-wnit-second-round/

There are some interesting correlations with the Wyoming women’s basketball team going to this year’s WNIT and the Cowgirls’ 2007 WNIT run that resulted in a championship.

As most of you probably know UW’s first foe this year is Nevada and 7 p.m. Friday at the Arena-Auditorium. The Cowgirls’ first foe in 2007 was Nevada in Laramie, which they easily defeated.

After that Wyoming hosted Missouri of the Big 12 Conference and won. If it beats Nevada Friday it could face another Big 12 team in Texas Tech,which hosts Houston Thursday in its first-round game.

And looking even a little further ahead to the third round, UW could face a Pac-10 team in Arizona State. In 2007 UW’s third-round opponent was fellow Pac-10 member Oregon.

I know UW coach Joe Legerski and his players aren’t looking ahead past Nevada, but if UW wins and say Texas Tech wins there is a good chance the Cowgirls would go on the road.

The Cowgirls averaged 3,253 fans per home game this season. Texas Tech, which is 17-14 entering the tournament, more than doubled that at 7,068. There is more than goes into hosting a game than average home attendance, but that doesn’t help UW’s cause.

On the other side, Houston averaged 434 fans per home game. If Houston wins and UW wins, one would think the Cowgirls would be in good shape to host another game.

Four Mountain West Conference teams made with WNIT, and all four are on the same side of the bracket. If UW keeps advancing, the earliest it would play one would be the quarterfinals.

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UW still holds the following WNIT team records from its 2007 championship:

–Points in the tournament: 452

–Free-throws made in the tournament: 122

–Defensive rebounds in the tournament: 154

–Turnovers in the tournament : 79

–Blocked shots in the tournament: 27

–Free-throws made in a game: 37, vs. Kansas State

–3-point shooting in a game: .750 (9 of 12) vs. Nevada

UW also owns three of the top seven highest-attended games. The sellout of 15,462 in the title game vs. Wisconsin ranks second. The record is 18,018 by New Mexico in the 2001 title game in The Pit against Ohio State. New Mexico also has two more games that rank in the top nine.

As far as individual WNIT records, Hanna Zavecz has the most free throws made in a game (17 vs. Kansas State) and tournement (37). Justyna Podziemska has the most defensive rebounds for the tournament (35).

See Wednesday’s paper for more on the WNIT, and go to www.wyomingathletics.com for ticket and parking information.