Cowboys snap losing streak in Magness Arena

John Luke Fabian
Jfabian1@uwyo.edu
Twitter: @HouseFabian
The Wyoming Cowboy’s basketball team traveled down to the Mile-High city on Wednesday to take on the Denver Pioneers. The Pokes (5-2) won the game 68-52 led yet again by the Senior Josh Adams.
“Everybody wants to win. And you have to embrace tough games because we’re probably not competitive or talented enough yet to just run away with people. So this was a competitive game. Kudos to our guys,” head coach Larry Shyatt told the Casper Star Tribune.
The Cowboys were able to hold the Pioneers without a point for the first five minutes of the game. DU did not even make a basket a little under eight minutes into the game. Sophomore Alexander Aka Gorski scored ten of Wyoming’s first 18 points to give the Pokes a 12-point lead.
Denver battled back, playing the full court press to force a couple of Cowboy turnovers and easy buckets. DU was able to cut the Wyoming lead down to two at the end of the first half.
Aka Gorski led all scorers in the first half with 10 points. The Cowboys out-shot and out-rebounded the Pioneers, but committed seven more turnovers. The Pioneers had six steals and 10 points off of turnovers in the first.
The Pioneers captured their first lead of the game with 15:56 left to play. The two teams exchanged leads for the next nine minutes, until Adams went to the charity stripe. He knocked in two free-throws that sparked a 16-0 Wyoming run. Four different Cowboys put points up on the board, including a vintage Josh Adams slam. The lead was too large for the Pioneers to make a comeback and Wyoming won the game.
The Cowboys held the Pioneers to 3-for-19 from the three-point range, while the Cowboys shot 8-for-18 from outside the paint. For the second straight game, the Cowboys out-rebounded their opponent. Wyoming recorded 14 assists on 20 made-baskets against the Pioneers.
Wednesday night’s win marked the first Cowboy-win in the Magness Arena since 2001. Adams had 19 points in the game and hit all 11 of his free-throws. Aka Gorski had a career day in scoring with 15 points and his third start of the year. Junior Jason McManamen went 3-for-5 from beyond the arc with 10 total points and had a career-high four assists.
“Man I am so blessed to be on this team…these guys have stuck with me through a brand new experience…so proud of them,” Adams said on Twitter after the game.
The Cowboys return to Laramie on Saturday when they will take on UC Berkeley at 1 p.m. in the Arena-Auditorium.