Cowboys hold on and keep Falcons winless

Cowboys-Falcons stats

By Wyoming Sports.org

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- For the first time in about six years, the Wyoming Cowboys have won back-to-back road games in Mountain West Conference play.

Wyoming had another nail-biter, but nevertheless a successful one, as it held off Air Force 65-62 on Saturday in Clune Arena.

The win is the fourth straight for the Cowboys, who are now 7-7 in league play and 18-10 overall.

The Cowboys, who edged Colorado State by three points on Wednesday, appeared to be on their way to an easy win, leading by as much as 14 in the first half. Wyoming senior Sean Ogirri had the hot hand, with six 3-pointers in the first half and 20 points.

Air Force, looking for its first league win of the season on Senior Night, chipped away to make it an eight-point lead by halftime and cut the Cowboy margin to three on a couple of occasions late.

Air Force senior Andrew Henke could not connect on a potential game-tying 3-pointer with four seconds remaining and the Falcons had another chance to tie the game after Wyoming's Afam Muojeke missed a pair of free throws with two seconds remaining, but the final buzzer sounded as senior Matt Holland lined up for a 3-point attempt in front of the Air Force bench.

Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds said the Falcons didn't successfully run their designed play for the potential game-tying shot.

"It was a busted play," Reynolds said. "We have a designed play called Transition 3, and it can go to either side of the floor, but we never got into it. Tonight, their zone really bothered us, and it's not like we didn't get open looks."

As was the case in the win over CSU, Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said they chose to defend the 3 in the final seconds rather than foul for two free throws.

“We had a lot of confidence in our guys,” Schroyer said. “I thought we had a good lineup to be able to switch. I just didn’t want to give them an opportunity to prolong the game. I wanted to switch, get a rebound and we did."

Air Force cut the Cowboys' lead to 63-62 on a Holland layup with 13 seconds left, but it was as close as the Falcons would get. Senior Brandon Ewing was immediately fouled when Wyoming inbounded the ball and hit a pair of clutch free throws to give the Cowboys their final margin of victory.

"We grinded it out," Schroyer said. "I told our guys we were going to get a really good game by Air Force. They were going to play the best they had played all year. I knew that, so I said we just need to find a way to win. And we did."

The first half was a 3-point shooting contest, with Wyoming connecting on 9 of 15 attempts from beyond the arc and Air Force hitting 7 of 14 attempts. The Cowboys shot 56 percent from the field in the first half and used a 16-3 run midway through the half to take a 39-31 lead to the locker room.

Ogirri finished with seven 3s and 23 points, with his senior backcourt mate, Brandon Ewing, also scoring 23 for the Cowboys. Wyoming out-rebounded Air Force 41-19 and made more free throws (17) than the Falcons attempted (16) to earn the win despite committing 20 turnovers.

The loss was the 15th consecutive defeat for the Falcons (9-18, 0-14). Henke led Air Force with 23 points, while Holland had 20.

The Cowboys, looking for a possible chance at postseason play, will close the regular season at home Wednesday against BYU and on Saturday against New Mexico.

“They are obviously big,” Schroyer said. “We are playing for postseason berths, we’re playing for seeding in the tournament. Right now, we want to get the best seed that we can and get the best momentum that we can. Hopefully, the fans of Wyoming will come out and support us because we have two outstanding teams coming home for the stretch.”