The typical script of the Wyoming Cowboys’ conference play struggles–which usually sees the Cowboys give up a big second half run–played out once again inside Arena-Auditorium, as the San Jose State Spartans swept the season series and earned their first win in Laramie in program history after defeating the Cowboys by a score of 82-73.
Defensively, the Cowboys gave up their infamous second half run to a conference opponent once again, as the Spartans burst out to an 12-point lead after making short work of the Cowboy defense with an 11-0 run, including making 9 of their last 10 shots from the field to end the game, after AJ Wills had made the contest a one point affair at right around the five minute mark of the second half.
“We got to buckle down and get a stop,” Obi Agbim said of the 11-0 run the Cowboys gave up. “A key stop is really important for us, and we turn the ball over in moments that we needed to make a great play.”
Head coach Sundance Wicks also harped on the Cowboys’ inability to take care of the ball down the stretch, as the Spartans were able to crucially convert the Cowboys’ carelessness into 17 points. The Cowboys finished the contest with just 15 turnovers–many of which were unforced errors.
“You can’t have three guys have 11 turnovers in the minutes that they’re playing,” Wicks said, as the likes of Wills, Oleg Kojenets and Jordan Nesbitt combined for 11 of the Cowboys’ 15 giveaways.
That dreaded five minute mark in the second half stung even more considering the Cowboys had led by as much as 13 in the first half, as well as the fact that there were 11 different lead changes throughout the course of a back-and-forth second half.
On the positive side, the Cowboy offense flashed some consistency tonight after eclipsing the 70-point mark for just the third time in conference play. This came after the Cowboys had showcased one of their worst offensive performances of the season the last time these two teams met, scoring only 58 points in the entire contest.
You wouldn’t have expected a shoot-out between these two teams, who both average under 70 points per game in conference play. However, that’s exactly what you got–as both teams executed their offenses at a high level–especially the Spartans down the stretch, as the Cowboy defense left a lot to be desired after allowing 82 points on their homecourt, the most points they’ve given up to a D-I opponent in the Arena-Auditorium this season.
“You have to be at your best when your best is needed,” Wicks said, as he noted that was also the message in the locker room postgame, “and we just missed it. We missed a golden opportunity tonight to be able to take advantage and control a little bit of our destiny here, whatever destiny that may be now in this race to seed yourself in the conference tournament.”
Though nothing is yet set in stone, it would be extremely difficult for the Cowboys to place any higher than eighth in the conference with only three games left on their schedule–Nevada currently sits in seventh place with a 7-8 record, with four games remaining. The Cowboys are now at a 5-12 record and sit in ninth in the conference. That means the Cowboys are all but guaranteed to play in the 8/9 matchup in the first round of the conference tournament.
That also means the Cowboys will more than likely be seeing the Spartans again in the first round of the tournament, as the Spartans overtook the Cowboys for eighth in the conference rankings with their win tonight.
“I feel good about playing anybody,” Cole Henry said when asked about the likely possibility of facing the Spartans again in the conference tournament.
“This team can show up great and it can show up bad. We can beat anybody in this league–we’ve shown flashes of being close in big games against all these teams. We could play anybody if we show up the right way, we can beat any team in this league.”
Unfortunately–more times than not–this team has been unable to show up the right way, for 40 minutes, in the conference slate this season.
And the Cowboys are just out of games they can even show up to–good, or bad.
