Cowboys turn to defense to stop Denver

by Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

The Cowboys were in for a slowdown Saturday against Denver and despite a couple of transisiotn spurts that turned the tide, answered the bell with a 62-54 win over the Pioneers at the Arena-Auditorium.

Up against Denver coach Joe Scott’s slow-down style of play, the cowboys switched gears for their fifth win in five tries.

“I thought our kids really executed defensively,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said. “I thought our guys stepped up and made plays offensively when we needed to.”

Wyoming had scored 202 points in its previous two games and had been averaging 91 percent this season. The Cowboys weren't playing Texas State or Prairie View A&M this time.

"It's been really good to see so many styles of play in these first five games," Schroyer said. "Denver is very deliberate in how they attack things. Texas State wanted to get up and down the court as many times as possible, and Prairie View wanted to get the ball to the basket and crash the boards with all five guys. I believe that will prepare us for down the road."

Sean Ogirri scored 19 points to lead the Cowboys, who are 5-0 for the first time since the 1997-1998 season. Brandon Ewing finished with 16 points for Wyoming.
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A 15-3 run opened things up for the Cowboys, who trailed 43-32 on a 3-pointer by Denver's Kyle Lewis. Wyoming found a couple of cracks in the Denver slow-down game and it was enough to get them going.

"I think we got out in transition a little bit and kind of sped things up, and that's pretty much our game," Ewing said. "They pretty much controlled the tempo for a little bit of the game by keeping the score low. But once we got into transition a little bit and Sean started knocking down his 3's, spreading out the defense, everything started opening up for us."

Rob Lewis scored 17 points and Nate Rohnert added 11 for Denver (0-4).

Wyoming turned to a 1-3-1 defense to slow down the Pioneers, who hit 11 of 32 3-pointers, but just 4-of-21 in the second half.

“It kind of made them get out of rhythm a little bit,” Schroyer said. “They forced up a couple of shots and we were able to get the flow going the way we wanted it.”

Scott, who had some memorable battles with Wyoming when he coached at Air Force (2000-2003), said that his team needs to take advantage of what is given them.


"Against the zone, we had some open looks,” Scott said. “Our guys have to learn that when we are open, those are the shots that we are trying to get.”

Wyoming led 29-27 at halftime, but Denver led on three occasions in the second half, the last on a 3-pointer by Kyle Lewis with 9:38 to play. Ogirri answered with a 3-pointer and the Cowboys went on a 15-3 run and led by as much as 11 in the final minutes.

Denver did cut the lead back to five with 45 seconds left, but the Cowboys got one free throw by Ogirri and two more by Afam Muojeke to close the scoring.

The Cowboys hit the road for the first time Wednesday when they face Boise State at 7 p.m.