Freshman forward Alan Herndon goes up for a lay up at the Border War game against Colorado State University Saturday. The cowboys secured another with with a final score of 83-75.
The University of Wyoming men’s basketball team, led by senior guard Nathan Sobey’s career-high 33 points, beat Colorado State 83-75 on Saturday afternoon in Laramie.
“T-E-A-M, because we needed all of them,” said head coach Larry Shyatt. “This group deserved this. I’m happy they got to do it in front of 6,000 fantastic Wyoming fans.”
Wyoming 18-13 (9-9) never trailed in this game and led by as much as 18 in the second half. Colorado State 16-15 (7-11) did make runs in the second half, however, pulling to within two points on two different occasions.
Freshman guard David Cohn, courtesy of junior guard Riley Grabau’s fifth foul, got the Rams as close as they were the entire game, at 64-62 with 5:25 to play.
Wyoming met this adversity head-on, in the form of a 10-0 run, which was capped-off by two dunks, one by sophomore guard Josh Adams and the other by junior forward Derek Cooke Jr.
Colorado State got the deficit down to as little as six, but press-breaker dunks and free throws sealed the win for the Cowboys down the stretch.
“Runs happen all the time in this game,” said Shyatt. “The better team won.”
Along with Sobey’s career high, Adams had 22 points and seven assists and Cooke chipped in 14 points. Adams’ 22 points marked the third consecutive game he has scored at least 20 points.
“We are starting to see some maturity from a sophomore who has played a lot of games and had to play down the home stretch of a lot of games,” said Shyatt.
Colorado State was led by junior forward J.J. Avila who had 21 points. Other Rams to score in double figures included junior guard Daniel Bejarano with 15 points and sophomore guard Joe De Cimen with 13.
Wyoming was out rebounded 39-31, but outscored Colorado State in the paint 34-24. The Cowboys also took great care of the ball, only turning it over eight times.
The Pokes had assists 18 times on 28 made baskets.
“The three guys we counted on to handle the ball the most–Adams, Bentz and Grabau–had 13 assists and zero turnovers,” said Shyatt.
Saturday’s game was characterized by a slew of fouls and saw a bevy of players foul out.
As a result, some bench players who do not normally see minutes played a significant role for Wyoming. Junior guard Jack Bentz played 22 minutes, sophomore forward Austin Haldorson played 20 and freshman guard Trey Washington played 9.
“Fouls are a part of the game,” said Adams. “Everyone has been there a time or two.”
Wyoming finished at 9-9 in the conference which is good enough for the fifth seed and a first round bye in the Mountain West Tournament this week.
“I’m more interested in the body of work of this team,” said Shyatt. “They are 9-9 and it was thought and said that they could not compete with the better teams in this league. Boy did they, especially with the obstacles they had to climb. There is no coach prouder right now.”
Wyoming sported retro uniforms dating back to 1982 when the Arena-Auditorium opened and the players wore the numbers of the 1986-87 team, which advanced to the Sweet 16 that year.
Wyoming will next play on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. versus the #4 seed UNLV Rebels in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“We approach every game the same way,” said Adams. “It doesn’t matter to us what seed or what team we play.”
