The Wyoming Cowboys turned in a lackluster first half effort on both sides of the ball this evening to drop their second straight conference matchup, losing to the #25 ranked New Mexico Lobos 91-73.
The Pokes offense was slow to start out of the gate and after the first 5:30 minutes of play they had only cashed in for a meager 3 points. Despite decent defense, they were 1/9 on field goals to start with 4 missed three pointers and they quickly fell behind to the Lobos who went up 12-3.
Slowly and surely however, the Pokes started to stack points and thanks to a fantastic 9-0 run that was capped by a deep Sam Griffin 3, the Pokes tied it up at 12. From there, the game became a shootout with both teams going back and forth, trading points.
Right when the game was heating up however, the Cowboys went ice cold in all departments. In only 2:26, the Lobos tacked 13 straight points on the board and rocketed up to a 37-20 lead. The Pokes floundering defense wasn’t helped by a 1/11 run shooting either.
By half, it was 40-25 New Mexico. Even with the Lobos giving up 10 turnovers to the Cowboy’s 4, the Wyoming offense was unproductive and stagnant, only making 28% of their shots. Going 1/12 from the arc, Wyoming’s shooting trouble carried over from their struggles against UNLV when they went 4/25 for three.
Wenzel would reinvigorate the Pokes in the 2nd, nailing only the team’s second 3-pointer two minutes in. Even with slightly better shooting for Wyoming however, the Lobos still built on their lead and made it 53-33 at the 16:24 mark.
From there, the Cowboys couldn’t seem to get mobilized to overcome the deficit. Even while their shooting improved from the first half, the Lobos held the lead out of their reach by at least 15 points for nearly all of the second period.
Looking at the second half alone, the Cowboys hung in the game and shot and scored well, but after a lackluster start, it was far too little. Wenzel and Griffin put up 20 and 19 points respectively for the Cowboys and Manyawu grabbed 7 rebounds.
The Cowboys will take on another ranked opponent next Wednesday when #22 Utah State makes the trip to Laramie on February 14th.
