Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming's Sean Ogirri looks to run a play Saturday against Johnson & Wales.
UW-Johnson & Wales boxscore
By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org
Starting or coming off the bench isn’t important to senior guard Sean Ogirri. Finishing at the end is what counts.
A starter for much of his career, Ogirri was five minutes late for a film session on Friday and didn’t start on Saturday against Johnson & Wales. It didn’t really matter, as he had his best game as a Cowboy, scoring 18 points in Wyoming’s 105-64 rout of the Wildcats.
“It didn’t bother me, I’ve come off the bench before,” said Ogirri, who led Wichita State to the Sweet 16 and was the leading scorer in the NCAA Tournament his sophomore season, “I was late for a team meeting and it won’t happen again.”
In just his third game with Wyoming after transferring from Wichita State, Ogirri was 6-of-12 from the field, including four 3-pointers. He went into the game averaging 11.5 points a game, but had been struggling with his shooting touch.
“I just have to calm down. I feel like I can shoot well, I think I can make more shots,” Ogirri said. “The shots went in and we had a big lead, so it really didn’t matter.”
Cowboy sophomore center Mikhail Linskens also had his best game of the season and best rebounding contest of his career. Linskens, matched up against a much smaller Johnson & Wales team, scored 12 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.
“Mikhail played much better tonight,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said. “He had 12 rebounds in 17 minutes. We look at he and Adam (Waddell) as a combination. To get 18 rebounds out of the two is huge.”
The 7-foot Linskens said he just wants to come out and play hard.
“Their biggest guy was 6-7, so I felt like I had to dominate the boards because I am taller than them,” Linskens said. “It’s my job to do that. My job, Adam’s job and Mahamoud’s (Diakite) job is to go to the glass and get the boards. Today went pretty well.”
In his first two games, Linskens scored just four points and had 11 rebounds.
“I’m feeling more confident and getting more rhythm,” Linskens said. “The first couple of games, I kind of struggled personally defending smaller players who were quicker than me. Today was better.”
Brandon Ewing was one of six Cowboys (3-0) to score in double figures for Wyoming with 20 points and seven assists. Tyson Johnson added 16 points, followed by Afam Muojeke and freshman A.J. Davis with 14 each. All nine Cowboys who played got in the scoring column.
“I thought we played well in stretches,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said. “It was a good win for us. We were able to get people a lot of minutes.”
The Cowboys never trailed and weren't threatened by Johnson & Wales (1-4), a NAIA Division II Independent team from Denver. Wyoming scored the game’s first 11 points and led 23-8 just seven minutes into the contest, before taking a 55-29 advantage into the locker room at halftime.Wyoming shot 56 percent from the field (39-of-70), while the Wildcats shot just 29 percent (20-of-69).
Johnson & Wales was paced by Sasha Pate with 14 points, followed by Andrew Baker with 13 and Ethan Evenson with 11.
“I thought at times our guys played well, and we knew it was going to be an uphill battle,” Johnson & Wales coach Jeff Culver said. “Wyoming is a great team and we’re definitely outmatched in a number of positions. Size was something that we were on the short size of. Our guys played hard and got it turned around quickly.”
The Cowboys will return to action Wednesday as they host Texas State beginning at 7 p.m.
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