Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming senior Tyson Johnson looks to make a move against Colorado State on Saturday.
Wyoming-CSU stats
By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org
If the Wyoming Cowboys would have put two halves together against TCU earlier in the week, they would have likely won their first Mountain West Conference road game of the season.
If the Cowboys would have played in the second half on Saturday like they did in the first half, they would have routed Colorado State.
The difference this time, though, was more than ifs for the Cowboys, as they had enough at the end to hold off the Rams, 83-74 in the Arena-Auditorium.
Wyoming had one of its better starts of the season -- easily its best start in league play -- shooting 63 percent from the fields and leading the Rams by 14.
Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said that they didn’t change anything in preparing for the Rams.
“We did what we always do, try to prepare them the best that we can,” Schroyer said. “We go into a game with a game plan and we talk about one or two adjustments in case we need them, and we go in and play.”
The Cowboys were forced into some adjustments in the second half as CSU, despite playing without leading scorer Marcus Walker, chipped away and cut the Wyoming lead to two on a pair of occasions.
Wyoming, 2-3 and 13-6, made the plays down the stretch this time for the win.
“I thought our guys really battled back in the second half and found a way to win,” Schroyer said. “CSU did a great job in the second half. They went to a zone, some triangle and two, and slowed us down a little bit. But we made some plays and got out with a great win.”
Wyoming senior guard Sean Ogirri said the CSU zone definitely slowed them down a little, as the Rams had a couple of runs -- 15-7 to cut the Wyoming lead to 58-56 with 8:22 to play and 9-3 to make it a two-point game again at the 3:50 mark.
“When they were man-to-man, they couldn’t guard us,” Ogirri said. “But when they started switching to zone, we started taking bad shots and that led them on the break.”
When the Cowboys went through a little spell offensively, Schroyer said their defensive intensity also went down.
“That happens," he said. “But we made some adjustments and we attacked the zone the last five minutes or so really well.”
The Cowboys scored seven straight for some breathing room and then finished by hitting 6 of 9 free throws in the final 1:18.
“We were a little too comfortable with our lead and their zone did slow us down,” said Wyoming freshman Afam Muojeke, who led all scorers with 25 points. “We were able to get some stops in the end and run our motion on offense.”
Jesse Carr led the Rams, 2-4, 7-13, with a career-high 21 points, while Travis Franklin scored 17 and Andy Ogide 13.
“There is no moral victory here,” Colorado State coach Tim Miles said. “We got it down to a couple, but we just made some bad decisions and took a bad shot about three different times, and that is not good enough to win.”
Tyson Johnson scored 19 for Wyoming, while Brandon Ewing finished with 18 points and Ogirri added 11.
“It was great win for us,” Schroyer said. “Any win in this league is a good win.”
The Cowboys return to action on Tuesday when they host Air Force at 6 p.m.
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