The Wyoming Cowboys men’s basketball team got a 63-62 overtime win over the New Mexico Lobos on Saturday, in front of a crowd of 10,167, which was the biggest crowd since 2005.
“I want to give a shout out to our great fans. I’m so happy our fans got to see a great game like this, and see our guys end it with a bang. We only get five more chances to see this group play in the Double A and I want so much for our fans to get to appreciate this team,” head coach Larry Shyatt said.
The game started out with both teams keeping the score within 4 points of each other. Wyoming was not able to get any points in the paint in the first half, and got a majority of their points from beyond the arc. Despite only shooting 35.3 percent in the first half, Wyoming lead 21-20 at the half. Junior guard, Josh Adams led the team in scoring in the first half with 12 points.
In the second half, Wyoming was able to get senior forward Larry Nance Jr. more involved in scoring allowing him to get a couple of dunks. Nance also hit all seven of his free throws in the second half. The game continued to stay close in the second half until the Lobos took a three point lead with 16 seconds left in the game. Adams was fouled on a three point attempt with nine seconds left in the game that set the Cowboys up to tie the game. Adams hit all of his free throws and sent the game into overtime.
In overtime New Mexico pulled away from Wyoming with a five-point lead with just over a minute left in overtime. Adams came through again with a three ball to put the Pokes within two. Wyoming got the stop on the other end to give them the chance to tie the game or take the lead. Nance was fouled on a shot that sent him to the line. The senior forward missed his first free throw and then made his second, the Lobo’s lead was one.
Nance said the original plan was for them to foul the player who received the inbounds pass immediately to give them enough time to run a play at the end. That did not happen. Greenwood of New Mexico was able to get away from his defender and pass the ball up court. Nance was able to make a break on the ball and get the steal. After some wrestling on the court for the ball, Grabau came up with it and was able to rifle a pass to Nance for the go ahead dunk with three seconds left in the game. The crowd went nuts. The remaining seconds ran off the clock as the Lobos failed to shoot the ball and Wyoming won.
“A lot of things happened during the home stretch of this one, but I can’t say enough about how much I love our guys. Their will is incredible. When somebody hits an incredible shot against them, instead of dropping their heads there is no give up in them and they keep pushing,” said Shyatt.
During the post-game player’s press conference senior guard Charles Hankerson Jr. burst in just to tell the guys in there that he loved them.
The Cowboys improved their overall record to 17-3 and 6-1 in the Mountain West, and now sit in first place. Wyoming’s next game will be at Utah State, in Logan, UT on Jan. 27.
