Wyoming basketball head coach Sundance Wicks and his team knows that every game in the Mountain West conference is going to be a battle.
And tonight, it was all out warfare to decide a winner between the Pokes and the Nevada Wolfpack. A back and forth brawl between both teams saw 26 different lead changes throughout the course of the game with no team leading by double digits at any point, and it came down to the final buzzer to decide who would come out on top.
And that team would be the Cowboys, getting it done in their usual fashion–grittily, not prettily.
“Get used to this style of play,” Wicks said postgame. “I told our guys in the locker room afterwards, when you learn to live how we live and when you hang on possession after possession…that’s just how we try to grind them out.”
“Everybody wants to play fast and feed a lot of mouths, and we just want to win.”
Atmosphere: electric ⚡️
— Wyoming Cowboy Basketball (@wyo_mbb) December 29, 2024
Vibes: immaculate 💯
Results: DUB 😤 pic.twitter.com/yw0jfFPivw
While the Cowboys move to an impressive 8-5 overall record and a 1-1 conference record, the Wolfpack now move to a similar 8-5 overall record, but a disappointing 0-2 conference record, as the Arena-Auditorium continues to haunt them, as they haven’t found a win in Laramie since 2020 and have now lost eight of their last nine to the Cowboys in conference play.
The Wolfpack even had a chance to take the lead with under 10 seconds, as the Cowboys were clinging on to a one point lead. Nick Davidson, one of the leading scorers for the Wolfpack, received a pass for a wide open top of the key three–where he had been drilling shots from all night–and missed wide right on the attempt, allowing the Cowboys’ Touko Tainamo to put the game away from the free throw line for a 66-63 win.
On paper, the Cowboys’ win looked prettier than it was–a 52.4% shooting percentage from deep and 48.9% from the field will certainly make it look that way. Digging further into the box score, however, reveals just how ugly this one got at times. The Cowboys–who hold an assist-to-turnover ratio that ranks in the 300s nationally–turned the ball over 19 times compared to just 10 assists. They were, however, able to turn the Wolfpack over 16 times, but their physical defense sent the Wolfpack to the line 20 times–where the Wolfpack’s four misses from the charity stripe proved to be a winning difference.
“If you keep them under 23 free throws, you got a really good chance–they pin a lot of fouls on teams, so you keep them under 23 free throws, you keep them off the three point line, you’re gonna have a chance,” Wicks said postgame.
Some monumental individual efforts and clutch shot-making late is also what gave the Cowboys a chance late and what ultimately guided them to a win.
Agbim, who has been shaping up to be one of the best players in the league, had another incredible night shooting and distributing the ball, as the senior guard finished his night with a team-high 18 points and four assists, including a dagger three that gave the Cowboys a 64-63 lead late in the game. He did all this despite being guarded by an all-Mountain West defensive guard, Tre Coleman, as well.
“Man, he’s so confident right now,” Wicks said of Agbim. “I don’t care what shot he shoots, I feel like it’s going in, and you don’t have a lot of players that you get to coach where, everytime you just watch him play, you’re just like, ‘go ahead, whatever I call, I don’t care.’ He has to go make plays for us.”
Tainamo, who, as mentioned earlier, iced the game late with a pair of free throws, had one of his best games yet offensively for the Pokes, as he finished his night off with 15 points and even had a pair of threes late that were huge in a winning effort.
“His ability to go out there and make a shot is huge,” Wicks said of Tainamo.
Speaking of making huge shots, Dontaie Allen had a big performance in response to a challenge by Wicks of late, as he was a perfect three of three from deep with timely three pointers as well.
A huge 3️⃣ point buzzer-beater for the Cowboys brings us to halftime! pic.twitter.com/zH6dlXcfMJ
— Wyoming Cowboy Basketball (@wyo_mbb) December 28, 2024
“He went through a little pressure-pack situation and responded amazingly,” Wicks said of the response by Allen, who’s minutes had been limited of late and has struggled immensely this season, shooting under 20% from deep on the season.
The Cowboys’ Mountain West ventures don’t get any easier in 2024, as they’ll cap the year off on New Years Eve with a big conference tilt against Boise State, who just escaped a tough San Jose State team on the road by a score of 73-71 and are currently 2-0 in conference play.
