The University of Wyoming men’s basketball team earned their second Mountain West conference victory of the season over the San Jose State Spartans 67-56 on Saturday in the Arena Auditorium to improve their conference record to 2-2.
Junior forward Larry Nance Jr. led the Cowboys with 18 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks, marking his second-straight double double. Sophomore guard Josh Adams also paced the Wyoming offense with 16 points and a career-high seven assists.
“This was one of the best team wins we’ve had all year,” said Nance. “We got three guys in double-digit scoring. That’s a full night, and I’m really proud of the rest of these guys and the way they played.”
Both teams came out slow offensively to start the game, scoring only four points of total offense in the first four minutes. Fouls and turnovers early prevented either team from gaining momentum, and set the tone for what would ultimately be a sloppy matchup.
The Pokes eventually found a rhythm on offense largely because of the play of freshman guard Trey Washington III. Washington earned his first points of the night off of a fast break layup before making two three-pointers in a row to give the Cowboys a 14-8 lead with 11:12 left in the first half.
Defense proved to be the Cowboys strength in the first half, as they held the Spartans to 26 points and a 36.4 field goal percentage.
The Pokes took a 35-26 lead into the locker room at half time.
At halftime, new Wyoming football head coach Craig Bohl addressed the crowd of 5,673 in the AA and said that Wyoming football was going back to wearing traditional brown and gold jerseys rather than the alternate uniforms worn in the last few seasons.
The second half started a lot like the first half did for the Cowboys. The Pokes missed their first three shots and allowed the Spartans a 6-0 run to cut the Cowboys lead to 35-34.
The Cowboys never truly pulled away until late in the second half, finally climbing to a double-digit lead with four minutes left in the game. Behind a couple of blocks from Nance, the home team coasted to a 67-56 victory.
“Overall I think we did a good enough job and the score reflects it,” said Adams. “We just really played team defense and were able to take advantage of turnovers.”
Senior guard Riley Grabau—who went into Saturday’s game leading the nation in three-point field-goal percentage—missed four shots from beyond the arc in the first half, ending his reign atop the national leaderboard.
“I am so happy he (Grabau) missed some shots, and can forget all this stuff about number one in the country,” said Wyoming head coach Larry Shyatt. “Now hopefully he can go down to Air Force and just play some ball.”
The Cowboys next matchup is Wednesday at Air Force. The game is set for 7 p.m.
