Cowboy basketball remains undefeated

Although conference play will not start until Jan. 9, the University of Wyoming men’s basketball team has an undefeated record of 6-0.

This is the first time the Cowboys have had a 6-0 record since the 1987-1988 season. The Cowboys reached the new record after their win Saturday over the CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners. The final score was 63-49.

The game was hard fought, but the Cowboys came through.

“We knew it was going to be a tough, physical game,” Wyoming head coach Larry Shyatt said in a UW athletics news release. “[CSUB head coach] Rod Barnes’ teams are synonymous with toughness and pressure defense, so we weren’t going to get a lot of clean possessions. I thought our guys did a great job of battling through and never losing focus.”

Senior forward Leonard Washington notched double figures with 13 points and had eight rebounds. He also tied his career high of four blocks.

Senior guard Luke Martinez scored 11 points and had three rebounds. Sophomore guard Riley Grabau had a career high of 11 points, and Sophomore forward Derek Cooke Jr. scored nine points and had six rebounds.

The Cowboys played well in the first half but started to shake in the last few minutes of the game.

“I thought we did a great job guarding the dribble until about three minutes to go in the game,” Shyatt said in the release. “We had held them to three baskets over the final 13 minutes, but with four minutes to go we fouled excessively. It wasn’t lack of effort, but we just need to do a better job of possessing the ball on offense and keeping a comfortable lead.”

Two highlights of the game were the last two scores of the first half. Both Cooke and Washington had dunks before the end of the half, making the half time score 31-23.

Throughout the game, UW had a 31-28 advantage in rebounds, and an 8-1 advantage in blocks.

The next game for the Cowboys is set for 8 p.m. Wednesday at University of California, Santa Barbara. The first game of conference play will be against Boise State.