The UW men’s basketball team (17-12, 7-9 MW) picked up a conference win in Laramie this past Saturday against the New Mexico Lobos (16-13, 9-8 MW) with a score of 82-71.
“I’m happy with the win,” head coach Allan Edwards said post-game. “We needed it from a mental standpoint after coming off of three losses. You can preach all you want about how you’re getting better and working hard, but at the end of the day wins are wins and loses are loses. It was good to get one against a good team.”
UW guard Justin James posted a double-double for the Cowboys leading the team with 10 rebounds and all scorers with 22 points.
“It felt good to get off to that quick lead,” James said. “We’ve been off for about a week, so working hard all week helped us come out with some fire and you could see it on the defensive end.”
Jeremy Lieberman led the defensive attack with 5 steals in the game along with 5 defensive rebounds.
“Every game I set out to be a pest and get into other guard’s faces and affect the game that way,” Lieberman said. “I had a couple off ball steals and stayed active. I try to bring the energy every game and I feel that’s my role on this team.”
Another key for the Pokes defense was containing Elijah Brown, the Lobo guard who is currently second in the conference in scoring with 18.5 points per game. The Cowboys defense held Brown to 4-17 from the field and 0-8 from behind the arc.
“As a team I thought we made him (Brown) take some tough ones,” guard Jason McManamen said. “He wasn’t making a lot of shots and I think we can take some credit for that. That was big for us in getting the win.”
UW shot 49 percent from the field and 48 percent (14-29) from behind the three-point line, while holding New Mexico to a staggering 3-20 from behind the arc.
“We are always comfortable shooting the ball, we shoot the three ball every game,” James said. “We have the confidence to do it and tonight we made them.”
Mcmanamen added 17 points for the Cowboys, including four three-pointers. That effort leaves Mcmanamen one three-pointer shy of tying the all-time UW record of 193 three-pointers made held by former guard Brandon Ewing.
The Pokes next game will be in Fort Collins where they will take on the second place CSU Rams in the second Border War meeting of the season. The game is set for 8 p.m. on Tuesday at Moby Arena.
