Cowboys hold off Houston Baptist

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Wyoming-Houston Baptist boxscore

The Wyoming Cowboys struggled once again, but Houston Baptist is no UCLA. The Cowboys still had enough to down the Huskies 84-74 on Monday in the first game of the Duel in the Desert in Logan, Utah.

The Cowboys, coming off a 113-62 spanking by No. 9 UCLA last Tuesday in Los Angeles, had to fight hard against a winless Houston Baptist team, but prevailed down the stretch.

“We didn’t play particularly well,” Wyoming head coach Heath Schroyer said during his post-game radio show on the Cowboys Sports Network. “I thought we were stagnant. They were a very big (isolation) team, they sent four guys on the perimeter trying to break you down.”

Schroyer, however, did say the Cowboy bench played well, as did seniors Brandon Ewing and Tyson Johnson down the stretch.

Ewing scored 21 points and Johnson added 20 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Cowboys to their 10th win of the season against two losses. Sean Ogirri also scored 12 and handed out a team-high six assists for the Cowboys.

“I thought A.J. (Davis), for the most part, played well,” Schroyer said. “He played 22 minutes, scored six points and grabbed six rebounds. For the most part, he did a good job.”

Djibril Thiam also had a strong game, with eight points and 11 rebounds off of the bench.

Wyoming out-rebounded Houston Baptist 56-37. Gordon Watt scored 28 and grabbed 12 rebounds for Houston Baptist (0-13). Baron Sauls scored 15 and Mario Flaherty 11, all in the first half.

The Huskies tied the game once in the second half, 57-57 with 8:38 to play, on a jump shot by Watt. But the Cowboys went on a 14-3 run to pull away.

Wyoming jumped out to an early lead in the first half, leading by 19-10 with 10 minutes to play. Houston Baptist went on a 13-4 run behind Flaherty and eventually took the lead 26-24 with 7:50 remaining.

The Cowboys, however, responded and led 41-39 at halftime.

Wyoming had another good night at the free-throw line, hitting 32 of 39 attempts, to just 15-of-23 for the Huskies.

Getting to the line was a two-fold advantage for the Cowboys, Schroyer said.

“We kept telling them to pound it in there and attack the basket, get to the free-throw line,” he said. “This team (Houston Baptist) is very, very good in transition. We knew that every time we got to the free-throw line, it took away their transition. We were able to knock them down at a great clip.”

The Cowboys held the Huskies to just 35 percent shooting from the field in the game (25-of-72) and 29 percent from beyond the 3-point arc (9-of-31). Houston Baptist scored just one field goal in the first five minutes of the second half.

“The biggest thing is we spent about 11 hours in two days out on the practice floor,” Schroyer said. “I just said, ‘Guys, we’re playing harder at times against each other, beating each other up. It’s time for us to go out there and beat somebody else up.’ I thought in the first five minutes, we came out and set the tone, and I thought defensively we were pretty good. We weren’t great at times, but at the end, we did a good job on the ball, which was good.”

The Cowboys will now face Howard Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., before closing with host Utah State Wednesday at 8 p.m. Utah State crushed Howard 85-45 in the late game on Monday.

“Howard beat Oregon State; they are very capable. They are always very talented,” Schroyer said. “We’ll have to play better tomorrow night and I think we will. It was good to get the first one out of Christmas. I think our guys will respond and play better tomorrow.”