(UW Media Relations Photo)
It was all going the Cowboys’ way on the road in one of the toughest road venues in the Mountain West – until it wasn’t.
The Cowboys rolled into the home arena of the New Mexico Lobos fresh off their first conference road win at Air Force and in the earlygoings of their tilt against the Lobos, it looked like they were on track to make it two league road wins in a row.
Three straight made triples by three separate players to open up the scoring for the Cowboys was an encouraging start to the contest for the Pokes, as they took an early lead within the contest. After a mostly back-and-forth battle for much of the beginning of the contest, the Cowboys would eventually set out to their largest lead of the game at 29-22 behind a Gavin Gores three-pointer.
GAVIN GORES 💥🪣 pic.twitter.com/QoV85DqkOz
— Wyoming Cowboy Basketball (@wyo_mbb) January 4, 2026
However, the rest of the first half would belong to an upstart Lobo team that would string together a 12-2 run at the end of the opening frame of play to take a three-point lead at the break.
While that halftime deficit seemed more than manageable for the Cowboys, it was clear the momentum of the game was not in their corner. That was very quickly demonstrated after the Lobos came out of the locker room ripping the nets from beyond the arc, making three straight triples to jump out to a double-digit lead.
From there, they never looked back.
The Cowboys would try to keep pace with the Lobos and mount a comeback, but would never be able to draw the game back within single digits. While they were held to just 32% from the field and 23% from deep in the second half, the Lobos were red-hot shooting over 50% from both the field and beyond the arc.
The final margin of victory would be 20 for the Lobos, as the Cowboys would drop the contest by a final score of 78-58.
“You have to be at your best when your best is needed, I think we have a chance, but we are not there yet and until we can prove we can compete with the top of this league our guys will have to show up every day and show me and the State of Wyoming they can do it,” head coach Sundance Wicks said in a UW athletics press release.
The Cowboys had absolutely no answer for the Lobos’ Tomislav Buljan, as the Croatian big man would dominate the Cowboys down low with a double-double featuring 25 points and 12 rebounds in only 24 minutes.
Leland Walker would be the only scorer in double figures for the Cowboys as he would net 14 points, as the Cowboys would finish the contest a measly overall 25% from deep despite a hot start from three-point range.
The Cowboys’ next opportunity in Mountain West play will come against a volatile UNLV team that has opened league play 2-0. The Cowboys will look to even their own conference record to 2-2 with a win.
