LARAMIE -- Joe Legerski and the Wyoming Cowgirls waited more than a year to see Aubrey Vandiver back in action.

When she finally took the court Monday night, it didn't appear she had missed a minute.

Vandiver scored a team-high 14 points, grabbed six rebounds and swiped four steals in 28 minutes as the Cowgirls doubled up Adams State 72-36 in the first of two preseason exhibitions at the Arena-Auditorium.

"The first few minutes were a lot more relaxing than the minutes before [the game]," said Vandiver, who hit three of four shots for 11 points in the first half. "Going up to the game, I was just really nervous, but once I got out there it was just an amazing feeling."

An early lead helped contribute to that.

UW jumped out to a 10-0 lead, allowing Legerski to empty his bench early, and the Cowgirls led 36-20 at the break.

"There's no doubt I was pleased with the effort tonight," the seventh-year coach said. "We talked about going out and trying to win four-minute segments. We lost one of the four-minute segments throughout the whole evening."

None were more impressive than the first two of those segments in the second half.

The Cowgirls extended their 16-point lead to 31 points by going on a 15-0 run to start the half and the Grizzlies didn't put points on the board for nearly eight minutes.

"[Legerski] just said that we really needed to come out and set the tone to start the second half," Vandiver said. "I think we just responded to that.

"We took a little pride in our defense and not allowing them to score."

UW forced 23 turnovers on the game and held Adams State to just 4-of-25 shooting over the final 20 minutes.

Junior forward Hillary Carlson picked up right where she left off following a solid stretch run last year, shooting 5-for-8 from the field for 12 points and added six rebounds and four blocks.

Sophomore guard Kristen Scheffler was 5-of-10 from the field for 13 points in just 17 minutes as she continues to recover from an injured back.

The Cowgirls return to action with their second and final exhibition on Friday night, hosting CSU-Pueblo at 7 p.m.