Cowboys stop Howard

Brandon Ewing


Wyoming-Howard boxscore

by Wyoming Sports.org

The Wyoming Cowboys got a career-high 34 points from senior Brandon Ewing and stopped Howard 84-75 Tuesday night in the Duel in the Desert in Logan, Utah.

The Cowboys improved to 2-0 in the tournament after beating Houston Baptist Monday night. Wyoming is now 11-2 overall and will face host Utah State in Wednesday's final game at 8 p.m. Howard falls to 1-10 on the season and takes on Houston Baptist on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.

Ewing was 10-of-17 from the field, hitting 4-of-6 behind the 3-point arc and made all 10 of his free throws while playing all 40 minutes. Sean Ogirri added 15 points and a game-high five assists while Tyson Johnson chipped in with eight points and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds, as Wyoming had a 36-31 rebounding edge.

Howard was led by Chris McHenry's 29 points off the bench, also a career-high as well as a Howard school record by a freshman. McHenry was 8-of-16 field goal shooting and made all 11 of his charity stripe shots. Eugene Myatt added 20 points for the Bison while Paul Kirkpatrick tossed in 12 points. Adam Walker pulled down a team-best eight rebounds while tallying a game-high four blocked shots.

The Cowboys led for much of the game and by as much as 17 in the second half, but could never really shake off Howard.

“We didn’t play particularly well, but we found a way to win,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said on the postgame radio show on the Cowboy Sports Network. “ In spurts, I thought we played pretty well, but at the end of the game we were a little sloppy with the ball. The score was a little closer than the game really was. a way it was a little disappointing that we didn’t finish well.”

After Howard scored the contest's first basket, Wyoming scored 11 unanswered points for an 11-2 lead but Howard later countered with a 9-0 run to knot the score at 13-all. Another 11-0 Cowboy streak capped by a 3-pointer from Ogirri gave the Cowboys a 11-point edge at the 10:05 mark. Howard never got closer than five points from there on out, cutting the gap to 31-26 with 6:11 left in the half on a McHenry trey, but Wyoming finished out the half with a 17-7 spurt to lead 48-33 at halftime.

The Bison charged back to 50-45 six minutes into the second stanza, but the Cowboys countered with a dunk by sophomore Mikhail Linskens. Wyoming kept Howard at bay for the rest of the night, leading by as much as 17 on two different occasions.

The Cowboys shot at 50.9 percent (27-of-53), hitting 6-of-13 (46.2 percent) behind the arc. The Cowboys were also 24-of-30 at the free-throw line, hitting 12-of-15 in both halves.

Howard was 28-of-69 (40.6 percent) from the floor, shooting a paltry 2-of-19 (10.5 percent) from 3-point range. The Bison were a perfect 17-of-17 free-throw line.

Utah State thumped Houston Baptist 94-77 in the late game and is now 11-1 on the season.

“I told the guys that we’re going to have to play very well tomorrow,” Schroyer said. “This will be like a very tough league game.”

Utah State was ranked 42nd in the latest USA Today/ESPN poll.

“We’ll try to watch film and try to have the best game plan that we can,” Schroyer said.