The Wyoming Cowboys certainly led an inspiring effort against the UNLV Rebels in their last road outing just a few days ago. The Cowboys were a blistering 14/28 from deep, assisting on 18 of their 22 made field goals in a narrow 63-61 victory against the Rebels. Those numbers were certainly a recipe for success and a win on the road.
Fast forward to tonight’s contest against the San Jose State Spartans, and you’ll find numbers that lead you to the exact opposite conclusion. Unsurprisingly, the result was the opposite as well.
The Cowboys would end the night shooting a putrid 19.4% from deep and 33.3% from the field overall, a recipe for disaster and a 67-58 loss on the road in San Jose.The Cowboys were well within reach for much of the second half as well, but their offensive struggles kept them from ever being able to make a run.
“It’s pretty simple, you can’t have everyone have their worst shooting night on the same night,” head coach Sundance Wicks said postgame. “You got to catch a rhythm early, right?”
The Cowboys certainly couldn’t find their rhythm early, trailing the Spartans in a very low scoring affair in the first half at 19-23. The Cowboys did pace the Spartans to begin the second half as Obi Agbim’s only made a triple of the night at 15:09 made the score 34-31 in favor of the Spartans. The Cowboys seemed prime to swing the momentum in their favor at this point and find a some sort of rhythm, but the Spartan’s squandered any hope of that quickly with a 7-0 to take a ten point 41-31 lead–to which point they would never look back, never conceding more than three points in a row as they’d eventually cruise to the final score of 67-58.
Vaihola finds McClendon for 3️⃣! 🌊#AllSpartans pic.twitter.com/zCQNTXRiar
— San Jose State Men’s Basketball (@SanJoseStateMBB) January 26, 2025
Cold shooting such as the Cowboys had tonight has been something that has befallen upon the Cowboys numerous times this season, as the Cowboys shot 22.7% from deep in their loss to Colorado State, 27.8% from deep in their loss to Boise State and 26.3% from deep in their loss to New Mexico, with all three of these losses being dished to the Cowboys consecutively before they broke the losing spell with their win at UNLV.
“Tough players play, tough players win, that’s our mantra. Players played today, [but] tough players played at UNLV, and I wish you could bottle that stuff up and put it in there and feed it to them before the game,” Wicks said of his team’s effort against the Spartans.
“When you’re inconsistent you get inconsistent results,” Wicks added.
Agbim was unable to reach double figures for the first time this season, as the senior point guard struggled to score the ball, making just 3/12 attempts from the field for seven points–but he did finish with a game-high six assists. Scottie Ebube–who did not see the floor for the Cowboys in their last outing–was the only Cowboy in double figures as he finished with a career high 22 points to lead the way for the Cowboys.
That’s 16 for @_Scottiee 😤 pic.twitter.com/B4cg4W6xYp
— Wyoming Cowboy Basketball (@wyo_mbb) January 26, 2025
“He was great tonight, so the bright spot for me is that when he can be like that–he was great tonight and we want to ride that wave too because we need that inside presence from him, and he was great tonight,” Wicks said of Ebube’s performance.
The Cowboys will have the opportunity to get right with a home game against Fresno State in their next outing. While there are no easy wins in the Mountain West–as Wicks well knows–the Bulldogs have struggled this season and are currently only 1-7 in conference play with their only win coming against Air Force, who is winless in conference play.
The question of which Cowboy team shows up to play against the Bulldogs will loom large until the tip Tuesday night–as it has throughout all of conference play. Will we see the tough, shot-making team that beat UNLV on the road or the one we saw fall to the Spartans tonight?
