The Cowboys men’s basketball team faced off against the Utah State Aggies (USU), where they lost 65-55.
The Pokes were looking to try and spoil USU’s chances at making the NCAA tournament as the season comes to a close, but their guard Steven Ashworth had different plans.
Head Coach Jeff Linder missed this contest, as he was tending to his ill father in Colorado. Assistant Coach Ken DeWesse stepped in as acting head coach in his absence.
Utah State started out hot, going 4-4 from the field right after the tip off. They were raining down threes on the Cowboys, hitting three of their first four attempts from the three point line.
That slowed down however, as the Aggies ended the game 7-27 (25.9%) from beyond the arc.
They are currently the second best three point shooting team in the nation with 39.97% on the season.
UW ranks 309 out of 352 division one teams in three point defense with 36.2% allowed.
Wyoming did a nice job defending however, especially in the second half.
Wyoming’s Xavier DuSell had a spectacular outing. The guardended the game with a team high of 21 points, and totaled all of UW’s points in the first five minutes.
He was the focal point of Wyoming’s offense in the first half, with a momentum shifting three pointer where he stared down USU’s head coach.
It allowed the Cowboys to go into halftime tied with a team that is quite frankly much better than them.
The score was 33-33 going into halftime, and the Arena-Auditorium was pumped up.
That success in the first half along with a disappointing second half has been trademarked by the Pokes this season, and it was no different this time around.
Utah State proved why they are in contention for the Mountain West title, and closed out the game against the Cowboys.
The Cowboys will travel just south of the border to Fort Collins on Friday, Feb. 24, where they’ll take on the Colorado State Rams.
