Jaye Johnson’s buzzer-beating tip-in gave the University of Wyoming women’s basketball team a thrilling 65-63 come-from-behind victory over Fresno State on Saturday afternoon. With the win in Laramie, the Cowgirls have now won three consecutive games.

Making just her second career start, Johnson finished the game with eight points, including a pair of much-needed 3-pointers to go along with three boards, a block and a steal in the win. The Casper resident and Natrona County High School graduate grabbed the offensive rebound off a Quinn Weidemann missed 3-pointer and was able to lay it in as time expired.

Weidemann led the way offensively for the Cowgirls as she scored 16 points and drained four 3-pointers while also notching a game-high four steals. Alba Sanchez Ramos scored 14 points while adding five boards and four assists.

Sanchez Ramos gave the Cowgirls (4-2 overall, 2-1 in the Mountain West) the lead late in the game as her 3-point play with 16 seconds left broke a 60-60 tie. However, the Bulldogs’ Haley Cavinder hit a game-tying 3-pointer with nine seconds left that looked to be sending the game into overtime. Then came Johnson’s heroics.

“Great effort,” UW head coach Gerald Mattinson said of Johnson. “We talk about playing 40 minutes and you got to make every play during all 40 minutes.”

Fresno State (3-4, 1-2 MW) controlled the contest in the first half of play, leading from start-to-finish in the opening 20 minutes. The Bulldogs lengthened their lead to as many as 11 points, 32-21, with 3:42 left to go in the half. Wyoming ended the half on a 10-4 run thanks to 3-pointers by Weidemann and Tommi Olson and four points from Marta Savic, who  scored eight points and collected four rebounds off the bench. Fresno took a 36-31 advantage into the locker room.

In the third quarter, the Cowgirls fought their way back to tie the game at 44-44 with 1:30 left to play thanks to a 3-pointer from Ola Ustowska. Ustowksa led the UW bench with nine points in the win. The Bulldogs went on a 7-0 run into the first part of the fourth quarter that made it 51-44, but the Pokes responded with a 13-2 run to take a 57-53 lead. The Bulldogs would regain the advantage for the final time with 1:35 left to play, 58-57, before Sanchez Ramos hit a deep 3-pointer to push UW back in front, 60-58, with one minute to play.

“Against Fresno you got to make shots and there was a couple of stretches tonight where we made some shots and then there were a few times where we were able to create some layups in defensive transition where we made a great play. I thought everybody today gave us good, quality minutes,” said Mattinson.

For the game, FSU shot 42.4% (25-for-59) from the floor and 39% (7-of-18) from 3-point range while making 6-of-9 at the free-throw line. The Cowgirls shot just 38% (24-63) from the floor but made 11 3-pointers in the win and missed just one free throw (6-of-7). UW had a big advantage in points off turnovers, doubling up the Bulldogs in that statistic, 14-7 and had a 20-3 edge in second-chance points.

Olson led the Cowgirls on the glass, pulling down eight boards while also dishing out a game-high six assists and recording two steals to go along with six points.

Cavinder led FSU with 28 points on 11-of-20 shooting.

The two teams were set to finish their two-game series Monday night at UW’s Arena-Auditorium.