The Cal State Fullerton Titans just never seemed to go away.
Despite leading the contest for a little over 30 minutes, the Cowboys never could quite put away a pesky Titan team that never trailed by more than the final margin of victory of 10 points. The Cowboys, though, had every opportunity to slam the door shut in this one.
The free throw line was the main culprit that kept the Titans in the game. A tight whistle had the Cowboys finish the contest with 32 fouls, which sent the Titans to the charity stripe a whopping 43 times, to which they made 31 of those attempts. The Cowboys, however, converted just 59.5% of their attempts from the foul line.
“We’re actually going to go shoot some [free throws] in a second,” freshman Nasir Meyer joked postgame. “That was bad, but at the same time, it’s a work in progress and at least we know we could have done better.”
The Cowboys will certainly feel better looking back at those shooting numbers behind the guise of a win as well – a luxury second-year head coach Sundance Wicks isn’t taking for granted.
“You can’t take these wins for granted,” Wicks said. “Winning is hard, [this] young team is trying to figure out how to win with game pressure, obviously with free throws.”
Cowboys Battlin’ 😤
— Wyoming Cowboy Basketball (@wyo_mbb) November 8, 2025
Half | Wyoming 38 – 38 Cal State Fullerton pic.twitter.com/1Se9KEIIqb
After a grisly 6-26 campaign a season ago, the Titans had to completely overhaul their roster. Returning just one player from a season ago and welcoming 13 newcomers, there was no telling what kind of team they would be – even after they scored a program-high 136 points in their season opener against D-III Caltech.
“I wanted to give a shoutout to Dedrique [Taylor] first,” Wicks said, referring to the Titans’ head coach. “That was as good of a Fullerton team as I’ve seen him have in a while. That’s a team that is gonna do some damage in the Big West [conference].”
The Titans did have a clear plan against the Cowboys in this one, though. That plan was to put their head down and get to the basket – evident by the 32 fouls they pinned on the Cowboys. A little over a third of their points came from the free throw line, but the Cowboys held the Titans to just 18.8% from deep.
A few less fouls go the Titans’ way, and the final score of 92-82 may have been a little more spacious. Wicks, though, was happy to see his team come out on the winning side of a close game – something that didn’t happen all too often a season ago.
“Now you won a game that was a little bit in the balance, right? That’s a big test for us early in the season that we’re going to need as we go forward. So, I was proud of them,” Wicks said.
There were a lot of contributors that helped the victory across the finish line, as Wicks employed 12 different players and a multitude of different lineups throughout the course of the game.
However, nobody stood out quite like Meyer, who – despite playing sick – finished with 18 points, five rebounds and four assists.
“I mean, it’s tough but at the end of the day, there’s nothing to complain about. There’s no excuse. So, if I go out there and not do anything in the second half, who am I gonna blame?” Meyer said, as he finished with 13 of his 18 points in the second half of the win.
Khaden Bennett played the most of any Cowboy, finishing the game with a little over 30 minutes of game time while pitching in 15 points and five rebounds. Damarion Dennis finished a perfect 6/6 from the free throw line and contributed 16 points. Leland Walker missed a majority of the later portions of the second half with four fouls, but still finished with nine points and a team-high six assists. Adam Harakow entered the game late and drilled a contested triple in a one-possession game as his only made field goal.
The list could go on and on – and Wicks raved about almost every player who touched the floor in the win, even those who didn’t have a big impact on the box score.
“There’s a lot of good things and I’m proud of our guys, but I said ‘celebrate till midnight, then we’ll erase the board and go 0-0 again on Sunday’,” Wicks said.
The Cowboys will continue their homestand against the Austin Peay Governors on Tuesday and look to move to 3-0 on the season. The Governors took down fellow Mountain West foe Air Force by a final of 74-54.
