Ewing named Co-Player of Week

Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming senior guard Brandon Ewing was named the Mountain West Conference Co-Player of the Week on Monday.

by Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Game after game, minute after minute, Wyoming senior guard Brandon Ewing just keeps climbing up the Cowboy record ladder. The honors keep coming as well. After leading the Cowboys to a pair of Mountain West Conference wins, Ewing was selected as the MWC Men’s Basketball Co-Player of the Week on Monday morning.

Ewing shares the MWC’s weekly award with Utah’s Luke Nevill.

Ewing led the Cowboys to a pair of home wins over UNLV (77-68) and TCU (61-56) this past week. He also had an historic week, as he became just the second player in MWC history and the third in Wyoming history to surpass the 2,000-career point threshold.

Against UNLV, he scored a game-high 29 points on 8-of-16 shooting, including hitting 5-of-8 3-point attempts. He also dished out four assists and grabbed two rebounds in 39 minutes of play.

“I thought Brandon was huge,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said Wednesday after the win over the Rebels. “When we struggled, he hit big shots. If you are going to win in February, you’re going to need your seniors have to step up and make big-time plays, and I thought Brandon did that.”

Against TCU, he scored 16 points on 4-of-9 shooting (7-for-10 from the charity stripe). He also handed out two assists and had three steals. Ewing scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half. The game marked the 100th time that Ewing has scored in double-figures in his career.

On the week, Ewing also moved into third place on Wyoming’s career assists list with 435. He has now dished out 130 assists this season, which is tied for the sixth most in a single-season in UW history. Ewing also moved into sixth place on UW's career field goals made list with 606 and into fourth on UW's attempted field goals list with 1,386. Finally, Ewing moved into a tie for sixth on the MWC’s all-time steals list by recording his 158th career steal.

Ewing said after Wednesday's game that he will look back at scoring over 2,000 points as a great accomplishment, considering all of the outstanding players in Wyoming history.

"With all of those great players who have been through here -- Theo Ratliff, Reggie Slater ... Kenny Sailors, who is hanging up in the rafters," Ewing said. "I didn't have 2,000 points in high school, so to come into college in Division 1 in a big conference, to get 2,000 points, it's huge. I'm sure my mom is proud."

For the week, Ewing averaged 22.5 points, 3.0 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game.

With Ewing’s award, all three Cowboy seniors have now been selected as the MWC’s Player of the Week this season. Sean Ogirri was honored on Dec. 22 and Tyson Johnson received the award on Jan. 26.