Wednesday, Feb. 7, the University of Wyoming men’s basketball team (15-8) played the Utah State Aggies (13-11). The Pokes were able to get the victory with a score of 83-65 in front of their home crowd.
This is the second meeting between the two conference rivals this semester, with the Cowboys coming out on top 85-77 the last time the two teams met.
The game started off evenly matched with score 6 minutes into the half being 12-11 in favor of Utah State. The Pokes were able to get ahead soon after and with only ten minutes left in the half the score was 21-14, Cowboys ahead. Justin James had a standout play where he stole an inbound and capped the play off with a dunk.
As the half came to a close freshman for the Pokes Hunter Maldonado had back-to-back steals which was second at that time to James with 3. The Pokes lead continued to grow and the score going into half was 46-33.
Top performers for Wyoming at half were James with 12 points, four rebounds, and 3 assists, Hayden Dalton with 15 points, two rebounds, and 1 assist, and Alexander Aka Gorski with five points and five rebounds.
Just over 10 minutes into the second half and the score was 68-47 in favor of Wyoming. Hayden Dalton started to near his fourth 30-point game of the year, as he had 24 points with 9 minutes left to play.
Dalton would not be able to reach another 30 point game, but the 27 he put up would put him that much closer to being the third Poke to reach 1000 career points this season, after James and Alan Herndon. Other stands out Cowboys were James with 14 points and 6 assists and Nyaires Redding with 8 points and 3 assists.
“It speaks highly of our conference how competitive the teams are across the board. All you have to do is look at the standings to see how competitive the league is.” Head Coach for the Pokes Allen Edwards said regarding the game.
The final score of the game was 83-65. The Pokes next game will be Saturday, Feb. 10, at UNLV.
