Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Falcons end Cowboys season

UW-Air Force game statistics

UW postgame quotes

A rough season came to another disappointing end for the Wyoming Cowboys, as Air Force rolled to a 59-40 win Wednesday in the opening round of the Mountain West Conference tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

The ninth-seeded Falcons (10-20) will face top-seeded and eighth-ranked New Mexico (28-3) on Thursday.

Air Force, which built a 32-21 halftime lead and never trailed in the second half, was led by Grant Parker's 15 points and Michael Lyons' 11.

The eighth-seeded Cowboys (10-21), who got 18 points from freshman Desmar Jackson and 12 from sophomore Adam Waddell, cut their deficit to 47-40 on Waddell's basket with 5 1/2 minutes left. But the Falcons responded with a bucket by Parker and a three-point play by Todd Fletcher that ignited a 12-0 run to end it.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Rebels roll past Cowboys

Wyoming's youth continued to shine, but UNLV's experience proved to be too strong once again, as the Rebels rolled past the Cowboys 74-56 Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

Freshman Desmar Jackson paced the Cowboys (10-20, 3-13) with 21 points, including 16 in the second half. Junior Djibril Thiam finished with 13 points and 13 rebounds, with freshman Amath M'Baye added 13 points.

Tre'Von Willis the Rebels with 20 points, nine rebounds and shot 9 of 15 from the field.

UNLV (23-7, 11-5 Mountain West) is the No. 3 seed in next week's conference tournament. The Rebels play sixth-seeded Utah in the final game of the first round on Thursday night.

Chace Stanback had 13 points and nine rebounds for the Rebels.

Wyoming, which has lost nine of its last 10 games, is the No. 8 seed in the tournament and faces No. 9 Air Force in the opening round on Wednesday afternoon.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Cowboys break skid

UW senior Ryan Dermody


UW-AFA game statistics

by Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Any win is a good win for the Wyoming Cowboys these days. A win was extra special on Senior Night for the Cowboys Ryan Dermody.

Dermody hit four 3-pointers in the second half to rally the Cowboys past Air Force 58-49 Tuesday night the Arena-Auditorium.

“It just feels real good,” Dermody said. “It was just good for this team to get a win, obviously. We’ve been struggling. It was our last home game as a team and it was my last home game personally. The guys played really well, especially these two here … Daylen and Djibril had great games. I’m really happy that I ended my home career with a win.”

Dermody is the lone senior for the Cowboys this season and his younger teammates said they wanted to make sure that they would be victorious in his final home game.

“We wanted to do that for our teammate and buddy, Ryan Dermody,” said junior forward Djibril Thiam, who led the Cowboys with 13 points. “It was great.”

Freshman Daylen Harrison has only played with him for one season, but he said tis win was for Dermody.

“I really wanted to get this one for Derm because I lost on my Senior Night, so I know how it feels,” Harrison said. “I didn’t want him to feel it this year.”

Wyoming head coach Heath Schroyer added that he was happy for Dermody to play like he did and get the win in his final home game as a Cowboy.

“He’s overcome a lot of things in his career with injuries; he’s overcome even more in his personal life,” Schroyer said. “I’m really, really happy that he was able to do that. He is graduating in May, all of his requirements are completed. That’s what it is all about. You hope your seniors can out like this and I was happy that Derm could do that.”

After missing his four first-half 3-point attempts and going scoreless, Dermody came out on fire and hit 4 of 6 threes -- two to put the Cowboys back in front and two to extend their lead.

Dermody admitted that he had a lot of nerves going before the game because it was an emotional night for him. He credited his teammates for keeping his spirits up after the slow start.

"They said, ‘keep shooting, keep shooting, they are going to fall,'" Dermody said.“It was frustrating in the first half because I didn’t feel like there was a difference between the ones that went in and the ones that didn’t go in. Luckily, I was able to make a couple in the second half.”

With the win, the Cowboys (3-12 MWC, 10-19) also broke an eight-game losing skid.

“It was a much needed win; it was a good win for us,” Schroyer said. “I felt our guys really showed a lot of growth tonight.”

Tom Fow scored 17 points for the Falcons (1-14, 9-19), who clinched last place in the conference with one game to play.

The Cowboys trailed for much of the first half, but closed the gap to 25-23 at halftime, and then rode the hot outside shooting from Dermody to regain the lead early in the second half. A 3-pointer by Dermody and two free throws by Harrison put the Cowboys up by six with 4:28 remaining.

The Falcons then scored five straight points but could get no closer than one with 2:36 to play, as Wyoming closed with a 10-2 run, including 8 of 10 from the free-throw line.

“They made a run, cut it down to one. We called a timeout and executed and never relinquished the lead. I thought that was big, and we made free throws down the stretch,” Schroyer said.

Desmar Jackson was 8 of 9 from the line and scored 12 points for the Cowboys. Harrison added three 3-pointers in the first half and scored a career-high 11 points.

Wyoming, which shot 44 percent from the field (17 of 39), hit 9 of 23 3-pointers, the second most threes the Cowboys have hit in a game this season.

"As simple as it sounds, we made some shots tonight," Schroyer said. "When you make nine threes, that is going to give you a chance to win."

Grant Parker scored 14 points for the Falcons, who cooled off after hitting 8 of their first 12 shots from the field. Air Force shot 43 percent (20 of 47) in the game, including just 5 of 20 3-pointers.
The 49 points were the fewest allowed by Wyoming this season.

“Give them credit, they played good half-court defense when they needed to,” Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds said. “They are very capable capable shooting the three as well as they did.”

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Poor start haunts Cowboys again

by Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Another slow start spelled doom for the Wyoming Cowboys.

Against No. 16 BYU, the Cowboys could afford a bad start, but that's exactly what happened in the Cougars 85-63 win Saturday at the Arena-auditorium.

Wyoming missed its first eight shots from the field and trailed 10-0 before finally getting on the board.

“I think a lot of it has to do with BYU,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said of his team's slow start. “They did a nice job defensively. When you struggle to score, it affects other things.”

Freshman Tyler Haws and Jimmer Fredette both scored 22 points for the Cougars (10-2 MWC, 25-3), who led comfortably the entire way to stay within one-half game of first-place New Mexico. After Wyoming cut a 14-point lead to eight with 10 minutes left, BYU regained control down the stretch.

“I thought they (Wyoming) did a good job of controlling the tempo,” BYU coach Dave Rose said. “We did a much better job in the second half of playing possession to possession. We did a good job offensively and a good job of guarding them … down the stretch we did a really good job of finishing it off.”

Freshman Desmar Jackson scored a career-high 26 points for Wyoming (2-11, 9-18), which has now lost seven straight games and 10 of its last 11.

BYU led 40-28 at halftime, only to see Wyoming cut the lead to eight with 10 minutes remaining. But Jonathan Tavernari's 3-pointer and Charles Abouo's dunk ignited a 16-3 run and the Cougars cruised from there.

“Hats off to BYU, they are very good and very talented,” Schroyer said. “They really stretch you and they can beat you in many ways. We had a chance when we cut it to eight, but like a really good team, they rallied and went on a 5-0 run and that was it.”

Haws, who scored a career-high 24 points in the first meeting with Wyoming, was just 6 of 15 from the field, but a perfect 10 of 10 from the free-throw line. He also grabbed eight rebounds. Fredette scored 15 of his points in the second half.

“Tyler was terrific; he was on attack,” Rose said. “This was a game where they really run at Jimmer and Jimmer did a great job of finding the open guy and making the right decision with the ball.”

Tavernari scored 17 points for the Cougars and Jackson Emery added 10. BYU shot just 43 percent from the field (29-of-66), but was 20 of 24 from the free-throw line.

Djibril Thiam scored 12 points for Wyoming. which ended up shooting 41 percent from the field (22-of-54), but gave up 19 points off of 12 turnovers.

The Cowboys return to action next Saturday at Utah.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Lobos roll past Cowboys in The Pit

A slow by the Cowboys start never really got any better as No. 12 New Mexico earned another lop-sided win over Wyoming in The Pit.

The Lobos, 10-2 MWC, 24-3) ran out to as 17-point halftime lead and never looked back, leading by as much as 31 in the game before stopping the Cowboys 83-61 in Albuquerque.

“I think they're probably playing as good as anybody in the country,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said. “When a team wins eight straight games in the league, especially this league and this year; it shows that they're a very good team. And this venue is great. It's hard playing here, but you tip your hat to the fans, the atmosphere, and everything this place is. It's the real deal."

Darington Hobson had 20 points and 10 rebounds for his ninth double-double of the season, and New Mexico's Steve Alford won his 300th game as a Division I coach.

“This was a great game,” Alford said. “Any time you come off the road this is the biggest game because you haven't played here in awhile. You get a little complacent because you think you just win because you come back home. I really appreciate the crowd. I just appreciate what our fans do. They wear red, they get after it and they did a good job of welcoming this team back."

Phillip McDonald scored 14 points and Roman Martinez had 13 for New Mexico (24-3, 10-2 Mountain West), which has won 10 straight - all in conference. The last time the Lobos did that in league play, Michael Cooper was suiting up during the 1977-78 season.

“We did what we do, 23 assists, eight turnovers,” Alford said. “We just share the basketball and our defense is getting better and better. Overall, I was extremely pleased. You got everybody in, everybody gets to play, everybody scores. Those are always fun nights."

The Lobos scored the first 11 points and raced to a 22-8 lead midway through the first half after consecutive 3-pointers by Jamal Fenton and Nate Garth. Hobson added a nice no-look pass to McDonald for a layup that put New Mexico up 26-10.

The Cowboys cut the deficit to 29-18 after New Mexico's defense went soft and allowed two easy layups by Thiam with 2:58 before halftime. Alford took a timeout to chew out his players, and the Lobos answered with an 8-0 burst that included two 3-pointers by Martinez.

"For the first couple minutes of the game, we could tell what they were doing. They were going to put Darington Hobson and Phillip McDonald on the block and isolate those guys on Desmar Jackson and Arthur Bouedo,” Schroyer said. “Those guys struggled guarding in the post and we knew we'd get into foul trouble. The other part of it was that we wanted to slow them down and shorten the game. I thought it was actually pretty good for us. We went back into a man-to-man in the second half and did some nice things."

The Cowboys return home Saturday to host No. 15 BYU at 4 p.m.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

TCU knocks down Cowboys again

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Close is about as good as it gets for the Wyoming Cowboys these days, as TCU had enough at the end to hold on for a 76-68 win Saturday in the Arena-Auditorium.

The Horned Frogs (4-7 MWC, 12-14) used a 14-2 run to end the first half and never trailed again in the game. The Cowboys missed out on a golden opportunity to have a chance to stay out of the MWC tournament play-in game with a win over the Horned Frogs, but will now have to upset somebody down the road to avoid that game. Wyoming, which has lost five straight, is now 2-9 and 9-16.

“I thought we did some good things, but I tip my hat to TCU,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said “They really made some tough shots down the stretch and that was the difference.”

Nikola Cerina scored 21 points for TCU, which earned its second close win this season over Wyoming this season.. TCU beat the 'Pokes 62-59 in Fort Worth.

“We handled the pressure pretty well the whole night,” TCU coach Jim Christian said. “We took care of the basketball, and then had a guy in Nikola who could score on top of the basket, which we haven't had. He's starting to emerge, and it's becoming a weapon for us.”

Wyoming led 29-25, but managed just two points in the final five minutes of the first half, as the Horned Frogs led 39-31 at the break.

The Cowboys chipped away in the second half and cut the lead to one on a pair of occasions, but could never catch TCU. Leading 65-64, Edvinas Ruzgas hit a 3-pointer and Cerina added two free throws with 1:33 to play to put the Horned Frogs up by six. Greg Hill would add another 3-pointer with 52 seconds left to seal the win.

“We made some timely shots,” Christian said.

Ronnie Moss scored 15 points for TCU, followed by Hill with 12 and Ruzgas with 10. TCU shot 51 percent from the field (27 of 53), while hitting 8 of 17 3-pointers.

Cerina, who scored 14 points in the first half, was 6 of 12 from the field and 8 of 9 from the free-throw line. His inside presence opened things up for the Horned Frogs outside game.

“When Nikola's a weapon, it shrinks the defense,” Christian said. “That brings a guy like Ed (Ruzgas) into play. He's not a guy who is going to create for himself, so he has to have somebody create for him.”

Freshman Desmar Jackson tied a career high with 22 points for Wyoming, while fellow frosh Amath M'Baye scored a career-high 14 points. Djibril Thiam and Arthur Bouedo scored 10 each for the Cowboys.

Although the Cowboys shot 46 percent from the field in the game, their last field goal came at the 5-minute mark. Wyoming showed marked improvement from the free-throw line, hitting 27 of 35 (77 percent).

“I was happy with the way we got to the free-throw line and the way we made free throws today,” Schroyer said.

Still, it's another loss that Schroyer and the young cowboys will have to deal with as they prepare for New Mexico Wednesday at The Pit, and BYU at home next Saturday.

“It's hard to lose, and I hate it as much as anyone,” Schroyer said. “But I told our kids that when you're young, you have to learn something from every game and work to get better from every experience.”

Friday, February 12, 2010

Cowboys look to break skid

After spending their past two games on the road, the Wyoming Cowboys will return home, hosting TCU Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in the Arena-Auditorium. The game will be televised live by The Mtn.

The Cowboys (9-15 overall and 2-8 in the Mountain West Conference) will be looking to snap a four-game losing streak. TCU (11-14 overall, 3-7 in the MWC) enters Saturday’s game looking to rebound from a home loss to Utah this past Wednesday.

Saturday’s game will have major MWC Tournament implications, as a Wyoming win would place the Cowboys in a tie with TCU for seventh place in the league standings. With a win, the Pokes would hold the tiebreaker with TCU.

Earlier this season, the Cowboys traveled to Fort Worth and erased a big first-half deficit before falling to the Frogs, 62-59. The Cowboys had an opportunity to extend the game, but missed three field goals over the final 20 seconds of the game.

Freshman Desmar Jackson has emerged as one of the top freshmen in the MWC. In fact, he is currently the MWC’s fifth best scoring freshman with an average of 9.5 points per game. Over UW’s last five games, Jackson has really stepped up and has averaged 16.6 points a game.

Sophomore Adam Waddell is the Pokes top scorer and rebounder, with the absence of Afam Muojeke. Waddell is currently averaging 10.4 points and 6.3 rebounds a game. He ranks No. 5 in the MWC in rebounding.

Redshirt sophomore JayDee Luster is the Pokes’ leading assist man. He is currently averaging 4.7 a game and ranks No. 3 in the MWC. He has handed out at least four assists in nine of UW’s 10 MWC games. He is also averaging 8.3 points per league game.

The TCU roster features three players who are averaging double figures in scoring. They are led by sophomore guard Ronnie Moss (14.4 ppg), senior forward Zvonko Buljan (12.3 ppg) and senior guard Edvinas Ruzgas (11.3 ppg). Buljan is the Frogs’ leading rebounder with 8.9 per game. Moss leads the Frogs with a league best 6.5 assists per game.