(UW Media Relations Photo)
Head Wyoming basketball coach Sundance Wicks and his basketball team were eyeing their first Mountain West conference victory after a stunning defeat to Grand Canyon on their home court to open league play. The Antelopes – who just recently joined the Mountain West this season – dominated from tip to finish in an 82-70 victory.
Clune Arena, the home of the Air Force Falcons in Colorado Springs seemed like the perfect place for the Cowboys to lick their wounds and earn their first conference win. The Falcons – who won just one conference game a season ago to finish their season 4-28 – have had an uninspiring 3-8 start to the season.
Regardless of the Falcons’ struggles of late, Wicks knew not to overlook them. The Falcons took the Cowboys to the wire in both their meetings a season ago, with both games finishing with single-digit margins in favor of the Cowboys.
“It’s always a dogfight every time you go to Air Force,” Wicks said a day before the contest. “They are always going to get big wins in this league, you just don’t want it to be you.”
Wicks was more than correct in that assertion, as the Cowboys would just escape the Falcons by a final score of 68-56 in a contest that was much closer than the double-digit victory would imply.
The game was certainly a dogfight for all 40 minutes.
A scrappy Falcons’ team would cause fits for the Cowboys in their halfcourt offense, as the Cowboys would cough up the ball an astounding 20 times, serving as an unfortunate season-high for the Pokes on that front.
The Cowboys also struggled immensely from the field, only connecting on 35% of their shots – though they did connect on 10 three pointers. The free throw line also served as a lifeline for the Cowboy offense, as they made 24 of their 27 attempts from the charity stripe.
Though this one was a battle for all 40 minutes, it felt as if the Cowboys had connected on the knockout punch with just a little under six minutes left in the first half. Jared Harris delivered on a four-point play and Uriyah Rojas knifed his way to the lane to give the Cowboys a 14-point lead towards the end of the first half, their largest of the night. Though that lead had shrunk to 10 by halftime, the Cowboys seemed to be in control of the contest.
However, a lamentable second half performance that saw the Cowboys make just five overall field goals allowed the Falcons to slowly wriggle their way back into the contest. The Falcons were eventually able to draw even with the Cowboys at 41 points a piece midway through the second half, but the Cowboys would never surrender the lead as Uriyah Rojas would connect on three clutch triples late in the half to help seal a Cowboy victory.
“It is hard to win on the road, and it is a race to score 70 against Air Force. We have to be able to handle this league, and they had us bruised, battered and bloody,” Wicks said in a UW Athletics press release postgame.
“This is what this league field is like. We did some good things and defended the three-point line well, but we have to be better.”
The Cowboys’ final point tally of 68 was much less than their typical production of 86.4 points per game, which was good for 50th in the nation heading into the contest.
Freshman Naz Meyer led the way with a well-rounded performance for the Cowboys with 14 points, six assists and five rebounds. Adam Harakow paced Meyer with 13 points and Rojas finished with 11 points, nine of which came from his three outside shots in the second half. Matija Belic led the way on the glass with nine rebounds as the Cowboys dominated the glass, outrebounding the Falcons 36 to 25.
The Cowboys will face another tough road test in their next contest, taking on the New Mexico Lobos on January 3. The Cowboys will certainly have to clean up their offensive performance today if they are to shatter the Lobos’ undefeated home record this season, one of only two teams in the conference that is perfect at home.
