The Wyoming Cowboys men’s basketball team won on Saturday against the San Jose State Spartans by a score of 77-60. Junior guard Josh Adams had a season high in points with 26, and also had seven assists and six rebounds. The Cowboys (20-6, 9-4 MW) got their 16th win at the AA which ties a record for the most wins there in a season.
“We wanted to push the pace today. We wanted to press a little bit. We wanted to see if we could get out and attack a little earlier. I thought Grabau, Hankerson and Josh in particular really did a great job, and D.C. and Herndon did a great job running the floor,” head coach Larry Shyatt said.
Along with Adam’s 26 points, three other Cowboys were in double digits in points. Senior forward Nance was out for his third straight game. Redshirt freshman forward Alan Herndon made his first career start in place of Nance and had 10 points with five rebounds.
“I thought Alan had a really good second half. He had a couple blocked shots. He stepped up and took two charges. He was the recipient of a couple really good passes for dunks, and really ran the court well on a full-court pass from Josh. It’s good to see Al back,” coach Shyatt said.
Wyoming shot the ball 56 percent overall and 31.8 percent from three-point range. For the 15th time this season the Cowboys were able to hold an opponent to under 40 percent shooting for a game. Wyoming scored 32 points in the paint compared to the six that San Jose State scored. The Cowboys forced nine turnovers and got 13 fast break points. The Spartans took an early lead to begin the game but it did not last. The Cowboys got the lead 4:34 into the game and never looked back. Wyoming had the lead 36:31 and SJSU only had it for 00:18.
“Eventually shots are going to fall and everybody was hitting shots tonight. If you look down at the stats everybody was hitting shots tonight. It was just a matter of us grinding it out, getting to the low post and eventually shots are going to fall,” Adams said.
Senior forward Derek Cooke Jr. was 3-3 from the field and made five free throws as well for a total of 11 points on the game. Senior guard Riley Grabau had 12 points and made two three pointers in the game. He also added two assists as well.
“It’s back to work tomorrow to start preparing for Nevada. I told the team that all we could control in this game were the possessions we had today,” coach Shyatt said.
Wyoming is currently in second place in the Mountain West and is one game back of San Diego State. The Pokes have five games left to try and catch the Aztecs.
Wyoming played Nevada last night in Reno, and the result was undetermined at the time of printing.
