Senior guard Nathan Sobey darts around Fresno State defense during Tuesday’s game. The Cowboys secured another win with a final score of 66-72.
Behind a career-high 26-point effort from senior guard Nathan Sobey, the University of Wyoming men’s basketball team defeated the Fresno State Bulldogs 72-66 Tuesday night in the Arena Auditorium.
The loss marked the end of a five-game winning streak for the Bulldogs.
The Cowboys were forced to play the final 14 minutes of the contest without junior forward Larry Nance Jr. as he went down with a knee injury.
“I don’t think it looks good,” said Shyatt. “He’s going in for an MRI tomorrow. He’s going to be back in four or five months if it’s a severe injury. But this is something he can catapult from and we can catapult from.”
Yesterday espn.com reported that Nance tore his ACL and is out for the duration of the season.
“We had a cause once we lost Larry [Nance Jr]. A cause greater than self,” said Wyoming head coach Larry Shyatt. “You looked in the eyes of those guys during those timeouts and it was pretty clear that they knew what they were going to do.”
“It’s always an awful feeling to see one of your leaders, one of your best friends, a teammate and a brother go down,” said sophomore guard Josh Adams. “He’s a great leader and a tough guy. He’ll be alright.”
The Pokes came out of the half leading by two, and quickly extended their advantage to as much as nine before Nance went down clutching his knee in front of Wyoming’s bench.
After Nance’s injury the Bulldogs capitalized, spurning a 9-0 run to tie the game at 40 with near 12 minutes to play.
Wyoming fought back, though, amassing a 10-3 run of their own to bring their lead back to nine, 56-47 with under five minutes remaining. FSU made a last push, bringing the score to 58-55 with 2:30 to play.
From there the game was played almost entirely from the free throw line, with Fresno fouling relentlessly in an effort to preserve time. Three Bulldogs and one Cowboy—redshirt senior guard Jerron Granberry—fouled out of the contest in the final minutes.
In the end the Pokes secured their victory with solid free throw shooting down the stretch, and came away with a 72-66 win.
Sobey anchored the Cowboys second half heroics, scoring 22 of his 26 points in the second half.
In the first half the two squads were tied three times early, but the Bulldogs grabbed a lead, which reached as much as six, and hung on for the bulk of the period.
The Cowboys, largely thanks to the offensive efforts of Nance who recorded 17 points in 25 minutes, managed a 9-3 run to take a 25-23 lead into the locker room.
Wyoming shot 43 percent (19-of-44) from the field, and tied their season-low three-point shooting percentage of 11 percent (1-of-9).
In spite of losing Nance the Pokes outrebounded the Bulldogs 35-34, marking the first time they have beaten a Mountain West opponent on the boards.
Sobey’s performance led the Pokes’ offense. He was followed by Nance. Adams recorded 10 points, his first double-digit performance since Feb. 1.
Junior forward Derek Cooke Jr. picked up much of the defensive load left by Nance’s absence, recording eight rebounds and a career-high four blocks.
“Larry’s our defender and he’s our guy that blocks shots so I knew I had to take on a big role,” said Cooke.
“I thought our guys played extremely hard but really smart,” said Shyatt. “Tonight they had to find a way without their leader. If you had told me before the game that Larry doesn’t play the last 15 and Riley (Grabau) has one of his poorest offensive nights, I’m not sure I would have taken the Pokes.”
The Cowboys will continue their season on Saturday in a Border War matchup against the Colorado State Rams in Ft. Collins, Colo. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m.
