Several Cowgirls are stepping up in the absence of star Quinn Weidemann

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - The Cowgirls basketball team has a big week ahead of them-- two games on deck, with the second being the huge Border War clash with Colorado State.

The team has started to find their form again; they’re riding a two game win streak, and played the majority of those minutes without their leading scorer Quinn Weidemann.

The senior suffered a head injury in the Cowgirls’ game against Utah state, but several girls have stepped up-- most notably Weidemann’s fellow senior and best friend.

”Everybody knows how tight Tommi [Olson] and Quinn are. Tommi just-- she always plays hard, don’t get me wrong-- but she had a different bounce to her step. And kind of a mentality of ‘I’m not going down this way. I’m going to guide my team to a victory with Quinn out.’ Her best friend and running mate for five years now,” interim head coach Ryan Larsen said.

In the team’s only full game without Weidemann so far, Olson as per usual did a little bit of everything against Boise State. She filled up a lot of columns on the stat sheet, and also brought her swarming defense that sometimes won’t show up in the box score.

Olson was far from the only Cowgirl to pick up the slack though. Allyson Fertig and Malene Pedersen both had big weeks; Fertig’s performances earned her the Mountain West Player of the Week, and Pedersen’s netted her the conference Freshman of the Week honor.

It’s unclear whether weidemann will be available for their next game against San Jose State, but what Larsen said the team isn’t doing is looking ahead to the Border War.

”We’ve got a mature group. They know that Saturday’s game doesn’t mean a thing if we don’t play well Thursday. Everybody’s excited about that. It’s a big game, it’s a hyped game. But we have a big game Thursday that we have to take care of first,” Larsen said.

The game on Thursday tips at 6:30 p.m.

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