Depth too much for Wyoming defense

Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming sophomore Djibril Thiam tries to get by Utah's Kim Tillie on Saturday.

Wyoming-Utah stats........First home loss disappoints Cowboys

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

The Wyoming Cowboys saw Utah senior center Luke Nevill go off on them (29 points, 13 rebounds) against one-on-one defense to begin the Mountain West Conference season in early January in Salt Lake City.

In the rematch on Saturday, the Cowboys chose to double up defensively against the 7-foot-2 Nevill, and he scored just 15 points. Once again, it was all for naught as the Utes had plenty of help in the Utes 80-70 win in the Arena-Auditorium.

Five other Utes scored in double figures as Utah hit 11 of 24 3-pointers, with most of them uncontested.

“When we played them in Salt Lake, we were going to let Nevill beat us -- and he did,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said. “Nevill is probably a late first-round pick (in the NBA). Here, with where our post guys are now and their youth, we just couldn’t go man-on-man, and I thought our posts played pretty good. Our closeouts on the ball were not very good. We let the ball go where it wanted to on the perimeter.”

Luka Drca, Lawrence Borha and Tyler Kepkay all scored 15 points as well for Utah, with Shaun Green and Carlon Brown both adding 10 for the Utes, 7-2 in the Mountain West, 16-7 overall.The loss was the first for Wyoming, 3-6, 14-9, in 11 homes games this season.

“Utah, coming down the stretch, got the ball where they wanted it and we didn’t keep it out of where we wanted it,” Schroyer said. “I give them credit. We cut it down to six and we didn’t get it stopped and they made the plays when we needed to.”

Drca, Borha and Kepkay combined to hit 9-of-14 from long range, and at one time, had hit 8-of-10.“The league is a great shooting league and you have to make your shots if you want to win, especially on the road,” Utah coach Jim Boylen said.

The Cowboys’ problems of guarding the ball was evident once again against the sharp-shooting Utes.

“We’ll go back and watch the film, but we have had a hard time all year defending the ball, getting it to the spots on the floor that we want it to,” Schroyer said. “Tonight, it cost us and it was the first time at home that it cost us.”

Wyoming senior guard Brandon Ewing said that Nevill killed them the last time and they wanted to take him out on Saturday.

“He did a good job of finding open shooters and they just knocked them down,” Ewing said. “They hit some tough ones, but they also hit some open ones.”

Wyoming led 32-29 late in the first half before Drca hit two straight 3-pointers to put the Utes up 35-34 at halftime. Utah then opened the second by hitting 4 of 6 3-pointers -- two each by Borha and Kepkay -- and Borha’s third 3-pointer with 9:42 left put the Utes up by a dozen. The Cowboys cut the lead in half before a 3-pointer by Shaun Green and two free throws with 52 seconds left put Utah back up by 11.

“I just wanted to get out of the first half,” Boylen said. “I thought that in the first half, we played pretty good. I thought we refocused at halftime and made some adjustments. In the second half, we moved the ball, and when the ball moves, we’re a good basketball team.”

When the Cowboys needed their defense the most, it failed them as the Utes stepped up.

“When you are down six with two minutes at home, you want to dig deep and get a stop,” Ewing said. “When you are down six with two minutes to go, that’s winning time.”

Ewing added that it is a combination of lack of execution and effort.

“We just can’t lose at home, no matter what,” he said.

Ewing led Wyoming with 18 points, followed by Sean Ogirri with 17 and Mikhail Linskens with 10.

“Give Utah a lot of credit,” Schroyer said. “They really stepped up and played well. Their seniors made big plays, like seniors are supposed to. They are very good; they are an NCAA Tournament team.”

The Cowboys return to action next Saturday at San Diego State.