Derrious Gilmore drives for a layup in Saturday’s win against San Diego State. Gilmore scored 13 of the team’s 58 points.
The roles switched this weekend as the Cowboys and Cowgirls played rivals San Diego State. While the Cowgirls lost to the Aztecs in San Diego 66-43, the Cowboys won 58-45 on their home court. Both teams now have the same record in the Mountain West conference.
Though the Cowgirls have had a lot of success in the conference (2-2 overall), their shooting game was not enough. By the second half, they could not keep up as the Aztecs continued to add to the scoreboard.
Though the loss was a disappointment to the team, the Cowgirls intend to have a strong comeback on their home turf Wednesday against the UNLV Lady Rebels.
As for the Cowboys, the team took down the Aztecs keeping a decent lead for the entire game.
Laramie appeared to be a ghost town as fellow Poke fans filled Arena Auditorium with 9,573 in attendance, UW’s largest crowd in the AA since 2005, according to UW athletics.
Leonard Washington and Larry Nance Jr. both had notable performances Saturday night. Washington posted 14 points and tied a career-high with 14 rebounds for his eighth double-double of the season, while adding a career-high five steals and two blocks. Nance added his second career double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds to go with a block and a steal.
“They (SDSU) were a very different team from last year,” said Washington. “We just tried to take over and dominate the game.”
The team played well both offensively and defensively. Stats from the game showed that Wyoming shot 32 percent (8-of-25) from the field and 15 percent (2-of-13) beyond the arc in the first half, but held SDSU to 16 percent (4-of-24) and no threes (0-of-8). Both teams earned 18 rebounds, while UW had a 6-0 advantage in assists. During the second half, the Cowboys shot 58 percent (10-of-17) from the field and 66 percent (2-of-3) from deep. SDSU hit 37 percent (13-of-35) and 20 percent (2-of-10) in the second half.
“Very rarely you see teams that give everything they have in almost every practice and then everything they have in every game,” said head coach Larry Shyatt. “It’s so hard sometimes when the game is ugly offensively or it’s not going well. It wasn’t going well for us at Fresno but we didn’t let our guard down. You can’t measure their heart and I’m very proud of them.”
The Cowboys will hit the road again Thursday to play UNLV. After their performance on Saturday, fans can expect the team to bring home another win for their conference record.
