First home loss disappoints Cowboys

Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer tries to get the home crowd pumped up against Utah on Saturday.

Utes depth too much for Cowboys

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

At 10-1 at home this season, the Wyoming Cowboys would normally feel pretty good about how they are playing in the Arena-Auditorium.

Unless that first loss was in their last game.

That was the case for the Cowboys on Saturday after the 80-70 defeat to Utah.

“Of course, everybody is down,” Wyoming senior guard Brandon Ewing said. “We don’t go out there hoping to lose; we go out there trying to win. Whether it is a home loss or away loss, we have some winners in that locker room, players who came from winners in high school or prep school, whatever the case may be. We’re not out there trying to lose, but they scored more points than us and we lost.”

The Cowboys, 3-6 in league play (14-9 overall), have lost three straight games, including two lop-sided road losses at BYU and New Mexico.

After playing five of eight league games on the road, the Cowboys felt pretty good about being unbeaten at home, considering they will close with five of eight at home.

Losing that first home game hurts, considering their struggles on the road this season.

At the same time, sophomore center Mikhail Linskens said one game won’t end their season at this time … they have plenty to play for.

“Just because we lost three straight games, it doesn’t mean our season is over,” Linskens said. “We’re not going to win the Mountain West championship (regular-season title), but we still have a chance to go to postseason; that is everybody’s goal, to go to postseason. We’ll work hard for it in every game, on the road or at home, it doesn’t matter. We just have to player harder and execute.”

The Cowboys will now have a few days to work, as they don’t return to action until next Saturday at San Diego State.

“We have to get in the gym and work on San Diego State,” Ewing said. “We have a week to prepare for them, so we should be ready and come out fired up. We have to keep fighting.”

For Ewing, an extremely successful career at Wyoming is now coming down to just a few more games. The Chicago native will leave UW as one of the top scorers and assist men in Cowboy history. In each game he plays now, a couple of records seem to go by the wayside.

What has escaped Ewing, though, is success in the won-loss column. Not winning enough hasn’t escaped his thoughts as his career winds down.

“Of course, I’m down; I’m down to single digits in guaranteed games,” he said. “I’ve been in this program for four years and it is almost over. I’m just trying to win, that’s all, just trying to win.”
Have the Cowboys gotten a little too down on themselves in the last couple of week? Ewing doesn’t think so. At least, he said that is not what he is bringing to the able.

“I’ll have my teammates ready and fired up for practice," he said. "We’ll practice (Sunday) because we lost. I’ll have them ready to try to win at San Diego State.”

Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said that at this time, he is not as worried about who they’re playing next, compared to how they are playing.

“There is a lot of basketball left in this season, and a lot left to play for,” Schroyer said. “I believe in these kids, but we have to understand that we can’t let down for a couple of possessions, and we have to do a much better job on the defensive end.

“I think our kids will come back and work hard starting (Sunday). They were embarrassed to lose at home the way we did today. We’ve got to keep working hard, because it doesn’t get any easier in this league.”