Ewing named to All-District team

Wyoming senior Brandon Ewing

For the third consecutive season, the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) recently selected Wyoming senior Brandon Ewing as an All-District VIII performer. Ewing also received the honor following his sophomore and junior seasons.

The USBWA names nine all-region teams from across the country. The teams are based on voting by the USBWA’s national membership. District VIII consists of schools in the states of Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and Montana.

For Ewing, a Chicago, Ill. native, this marks the third postseason honor that he has received this year. He was also named First Team All-Mountain West Conference by the league’s coaches and media, thus becoming the first player in MWC history to garner all-conference honors four times. He was also named Second Team All-District 17 by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).

This season, Ewing leads the MWC in both scoring and assists with 18.5 points per game and 5.03 assists per game. He is on pace to become the first player in MWC history to lead the league in both categories in one season. Ewing also looks to be a lock to become the first player in MWC history to lead the league in scoring three times, as he was also the best scorer in the conference as a sophomore and junior.

On the season, Ewing scored in double-figures in 31 of 33 games, while reaching the 20-point plateau 16 times. In his career, Ewing scored in double-figures 107 times and scored 20 or more points 51 times.

Ewing ends his Wyoming career as the school’s career leader in free-throws made, free-throws attempted, 3-pointers made, 3-pointers attempted and games started. He ranks second in school history in scoring and assists. He also ranks third in steals, third in attempted field goals and sixth in made field goals.
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USBWA District VII Awards
Player of the Year
Luke Nevill Utah

Coach of the Year
Stew Morrill Utah State

All-District Team
Luke Babbitt Nevada
Lee Cummard BYU
Tony Danridge New Mexico
Brandon Ewing Wyoming
Jimmer Fredette BYU
Cory Higgins Colorado
Mac Hopson Idaho
Anthony Johnson Montana
Luke Nevill Utah
Gary Wilkinson Utah State

Cowboy offense stuck in reverse

Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming senior Brandon Ewing goes up for a layup Tuesday against Northeastern.

Cowboys-Huskies stats

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

The game plan was simple: Just play an up-tempo game and run your opponent off the court.

Not everything goes as planned and the Wyoming Cowboys found out the hard way Tuesday in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational against Northeastern.

The Huskies, who play a more deliberate game, slowed the Cowboys down to almost a crawl at times and held off Wyoming 64-62 to move into the quarterfinals next Monday against UTEP.

“We knew going in that we couldn’t score in the 70s or 80s,” Northeastern coach Bill Coen said. “The University of Wyoming is very comfortable at playing at that pace. We knew we couldn’t get going up and down and get into a running game with them. We tried to control the tempo and that was effective.”

Northeastern, which confused Wyoming with various defenses, went into the game giving up an average of 62.4 points a game. Giving up 62 to the Cowboys proved to be just enough.

“They like the game low scoring like that; we like the game up in the 80s and the 90s,” Wyoming senior guard Brandon Ewing said. “We really couldn’t get in a rhythm.”

Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said his team was out of rhythm all night.

“I give Northeastern a lot of credit for that,” Schroyer said. “Their switching defenses kept us off balance. Offensively, they knocked down big shots when they needed to.”

The Cowboys were especially off kilter early, as Northeastern, build early leads of 14-7 , 21-8 and 27-14.

“We did what we did most of the year by coming out with energy, forcing them to one and done, boxing out and getting rebounds,” Northeastern guard Allen Chaisson said.

Once the Cowboys didn’t have a couple of early shots go down, Schroyer said they pressed.

“Give them a lot of credit,“ Schroyer said. “When Tyson (Johnson) and Sean (Ogirri), your two seniors that score a lot, get just seven points, they did a nice job."

Wyoming did recover and actually led on two occasions in the second half, but could never get over the hump.

“We missed a lot of easy shots,” said Ewing, who led all scorers with 22 points. “We weren’t executing on our offense and defensive end. They hit a lot of tough shots and got their confidence.”

The nearly 7,000-feet difference in altitude between Boston and Laramie seemingly was built for the Cowboys’ advantage.

“I would say that people, if they hit their shots and get their confidence going, if they are winning the game, the altitude will never faze them,” Ewing said. “ But if they are losing the game, they’ll get tired.”

Instead, the lengthy Huskies gave the Cowboys fits all game. No one struggled more for Wyoming than Ogirri, who was scoreless for the only time in his brief UW career, missing all three of his shots. Ogirri went into the game averaging 14.8 points and was the Wyoming and Mountain West Conference single-season leader in 3-point shooting.

“He’s a real good catch and shoot shooter from the outside, so we just tried to get up in his face and not let him get the quick look right away,” Northeastern guard Matt Janning said. “Coach did a good job of switching defenses the whole game. We went triangle and two and put one guy out. He was more than happy to sit in the corner. I think we took him out of the game.”

Coen called Ogirri is one of the best shooters that he is ever seen. It was the Huskies job to keep Ogirri out of his comfort zone.

“We were very concerned. He was very capable of going for big numbers,“ Coen said. “Every shot he took was contested. We have some length and we were hoping that would bother him a little bit.”

The Cowboys certainly missed Ogirri’s instant offense.

“It’s always hard to play when Sean’s not out there and in his groove,” said Wyoming freshman Afam Muojeke, who added 16 points “He got in early foul trouble, and he was never really able to get into it.”

In the end, the Cowboys could never get over their offensive quagmire.

“This was our first postseason game in six years and we were almost in slow motion at times,” Schroyer said. “Obviously, it is a step we will have to take and absorb."

Huskies surprise Cowboys in CBI opener

Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming freshman Afam Muojeke drives on a Northeastern player on Tuesday.

by Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

From Boston to Laramie and opening the College Basketball Invitational in less than 48 hours, you couldn't blame the Northeastern Huskies for being a little slow on Tuesday night.

But it was the Huskies who left the home-standing Cowboys a little dazed and confused, as they surprised Wyoming 64-62 in the first round of the tournament in the Arena-Auditorium.

Losing six of their previous nine games, Northeastern, 19-12, opened Tuesday with a different attitude from start to end.

“We had not been playing all that well towards the end of the season, and when we were selected, I think it was just a relief for the guys to get another chance,” Northeastern coach Bill Coen said. “We played with a particular energy that you need to be successful. We were able to execute and knock down some shots and gain some confidence early. I thought that was the key.”

Wyoming, 19-14, struggled early and the Huskies took advantage by running out to a 21-8 lead 11 minutes into the game.

“We hit some shots early and gained a lot of confidence,” Coen said.

Guard Matt Janning, who led the Huskies with 20 points, said they wanted to get off to a good start after their recent struggles.

“We wanted to put it on right away and see what we could do from there,” Janning said. “We had guys step up tonight.”

The Cowboys, who were led senior Brandon Ewing’s 22 points, came back to cut the Northeastern lead to 32-28 at halftime.

Wyoming took its first lead at the 10:55 mark on two free throws by freshman Afam Muojeke. But Northeastern’s Allen Chaisson answered with three straight 3-pointers and the Huskies led by as much as eight before Ewing scored six points in the final 20 seconds, including a 3-pointer with 1.7 seconds left.

Allen finished with 16 points, with Nkem Ojougboh adding 11 and Eugene Spates 10 for the Huskies, who will play UTEP on Monday. The Miners edged Nevada 79-77 on Tuesday.

Winning away from home has not been uncommon for the Huskies, who earned road wins at Profidence, Indiana and Virginia Commonwealth this season.

“We were comfortable playing away from home,” Coen said. “I kind of attribute that to we took a foreign trip and went up to Canada over the summer an were able to win six game son the road. That kind of set the tone for our guys, they are comfortable playing on the road. Home teams are going to make a run, but it is really how you respond to those runs that will make a difference.”

Cowboys glad to still be playing

Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming senior Brandon Ewing will get another chance to play at home Tuesday night as the Cowboys host Northeastern.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Going into the Mountain West Conference Tournament, the three Wyoming seniors had visions of winning it all and earning the automatic NCAA Tournament bid.

After being eliminated in the tournament semifinals by Utah on Friday, the Cowboys talked about a possible National Invitation Tournament berth.

Wyoming will get neither. What the Cowboys, 19-13, will get, is a chance to continue their season in the 16-team College Basketball Invitational, now in its second season. UW opens the tournament on Tuesday at 7 p.m. when it hosts Northeastern.

While the CBI isn’t the NIT and certainly is nothing comparable to the NCAA, it is an opportunity to keep playing. For the three Cowboy seniors -- Sean Ogirri, Tyson Johnson and Brandon Ewing -- that’s the best part.

“It’s basketball and everyone loves basketball,” Ogirri said. “Everyone wants to play the sport that they love. We’ll keep playing this season as much as we can.”

Added Ewing: “I just love the game of basketball and my teammates love the game of basketball. Obviously, the coaches love coaching. I don’t care where we play at, I just want to keep the season rolling.”

More importantly, it’s a chance to play more basketball in a Cowboy uniform.

“It’s very exciting that we get to compete in the postseason,” Johnson said. “We have another chance to get another win. It will be fun to play in front of our fans again in our white uniforms.”

In his second year at the helm, Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said just getting to the postseason is a big plus for not only the seniors, but for the underclassmen.

“This is only the seventh time in 20 years that this program has been to a postseason tournament,” Schroyer said. “We’ve made a lot of progress; I’m really proud of our guys. I’m really happy for our seniors that they get to extend their career and also really lay a foundation to where this program is and where we hope to go.”

Schroyer said he is also excited to be playing in the CBI, considering the alternatives … not playing.

“You just look at the teams in this tournament and you look at Kentucky and Florida in the NIT. It’s very, very hard in today’s world to go to postseason, and we’re very fortunate to be in it. We’re proud to be in and we look forward to playing,” Schroyer said.

In last year’s inaugural tournament, Utah competed and won its first game before falling to eventual champion Tulsa. Now, the Utes are the league champions.

“When you look at two teams that stand out from last year’s tournament, Washington and Utah, they were in the CBI last year and one is a third seed (Washington) and one is a fifth seed (Utah) in the NCAA Tournament this year,” Schroyer said. “When you look around the country, there are a lot of teams that are very good and have very good records that aren’t going to play.”

The Cowboys last qualified for postseason play in 2003 when they faced and fell to North Carolina in the NIT. The year before, Wyoming had its magical run in the NCAAs when it knocked off Gonzaga before falling to Arizona.

“These three seniors -- there hasn’t been a guy in this uniform in the last six seasons that went to a postseason tournament. This is a big deal for them,” Schroyer said. “They’re excited to play. Obviously, everyone wants to go to the NCAA Tournament, but we came up short on that. We’ve had a good year and want to extend it as much as possible.”

Johnson said they are motivated to play as long as they can.

“We’re approaching it like we do any other game … come into practice and work hard, do what we do, watch film on them and just go out and get a win,” Johnson said.

Ewing said they are approaching Tuesday night like any game, like it is a business.

“This team never gets too high, never gets too low,” he said. “We’re excited to continue our season in postseason play. We just want to take it one game at a time.”

The only Cowboy with any postseason experience is Ogirri, who helped lead Wichita State to the NCAA Sweet 16 in his sophomore season. He said he really doesn’t have any special advice for his younger teammates other than just be who they are.

“We just have to act like a regular game and not be nervous,” Ogirri. “I think they’ll know what to do.”

Ironically, Wichita State is in the CBI this season as well and could face Wyoming in the semifinals.

“I’d love to play my old school,” Ogirri said. “If they get there, it would be a good game. It would be fun. I’m just ready for the first game. We play Northeastern, so I am just going to take it game-by-game.”

Ewing said that he has talked to one of his conference friends -- Utah’s Johnnie Bryant, who played in the tournament last year as a senior.

“He was a senior last year and he wanted to have fun,” Ewing said. “He wanted to continue his season and didn’t want it to end. I’m sure he had a lot of fun with it.”

The second leading scorer in Wyoming and Mountain West Conference history, Ewing said that one thing he had not ever achieved in his career was playing in a postseason game.

Until now.

“One thing I always wanted to do when coming into college, was play in the postseason,” Ewing said. “I’m just glad I have the team that I do, because without them, I wouldn’t be playing right now.”

Huskies a bit unknown for Cowboys

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Late Monday morning, the three Wyoming seniors -- Brandon Ewing, Sean Ogirri and Tyson Johnson -- were asked during a teleconference what they knew about their College Basketball Invitational opponent, Northeastern.

They could have answered in unison with a big, “nothing.”

Now, later on in the day, they were able to watch some film of the Huskies, who will travel across the country from Boston to face the Cowboys Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in the Arena-Auditorium.

There’s not much in common with the teams from the Colonial Athletic Association and the Mountain West Conference. In fact, this will be the first meeting ever between the two schools.

What did Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer know about Northeastern by late Monday morning?

More than the players, but he too was waiting to watch more film on the Huskies later in the day.

What Schroyer said he did know was that the Huskies defensively are similar to Utah State.

“They try to slow you down with a three-quarter press and then back to a zone,” Schroyer said.
On offense, Schroyer said that Northeastern is deliberate.

“They’re kind of an inside-out team,“ Schroyer said. “They are a lot like Boston College. Their head coach (Bill Coen) was an assistant at Boston College, so they are very similar to them and play a very similar style.”

In preparation for the Huskies, the Wyoming offense will once again run trough Ewing (18.4 ppg, 5.1 apg), Ogirri (14.8 ppg) Johnson (13.3 ppg) and freshman Afam Muojeke (13.7 ppg).

“In one day’s prep, we’re going to do what we do,” Schroyer said. “Those three (seniors) are a big part of what we do.”

Northeastern, 18-12, finished 12-6 in conference play, tied for third (out of 12 teams) with Old Dominion. The Huskies lost to 11 seed Towson 58-54 in the conference tournament.

Northeastern is led by guard Matt Janning at 14.1 points a game, followed by forward Manny Adako at 11.3 points and guard Chaisson Allen at 9.7 points per contest.

To no one’s surprise, Ogirri and Ewing said the Cowboys will try to get out and run against the Huskies, who are not only traveling a great distance, but playing at much a higher altitude that they are accustomed to.

“I doubt they have played at altitude this high,” said Ogirri. “I know when I first did, I couldn’t even run after the first two trips. We’ll have to do that and use it to our advantage.”

“I’m sure they will try to find a way to suck it up,” added Ewing. “They want to win, just like we want to win.”

For the Cowboys, it’s also another home game. Wyoming finished 12-3 in the A-A this season.

“We’re pretty good at home. Obviously, I am excited to play at home and excited to give the fans another opportunity to play at home,” Schroyer said. “I know our seniors didn’t like losing our last home game (74-73 to New Mexico). This is an opportunity to remedy that and win a game at home in the postseason.”

With a win and a good crowd, the Cowboys could get another chance to play at home and would face the UTEP-Nevada winner at a site to be determined on March 23.

All Schroyer said they want to do is keep winning and keep playing.

“First and foremost, we want to extend our season. Our main goal is to try to win this tournament,” he said. “Obviously, it starts with game one and we’re playing a very good team. There is nobody in this tournament that is not good. Northeastern beat a lot of teams on the road. They beat Providence on the road, beat Indiana on the road. They’ve good and have had a lot of success on the road.”

Cowboys to host Northeastern in CBI

by Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

The Wyoming Cowboys are postseason bound, as they will be among 16 teams competing in the second College Basketball Invitational (CBI). Wyoming hosts Northeastern University (Boston) on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

The CBI invite is the first postseason tournament bid for the Cowboys in six seasons. The most recent postseason appearance by the Pokes came in the 2002-03 season when UW appeared in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT).

“I think this is a tribute to the student-athletes and coaches that they have been able to turn our program in a positive direction in such a short amount of time,” said UW Athletics Director Tom Burman in a release Sunday night. “I know our fans remember the excitement generated by the Cowgirl basketball program in their run to the WNIT Championship two years ago, and I hope our fans are looking forward to coming out Tuesday night to support the Cowboys in their first home game of the CBI.”

In just his second year at the helm, Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said that it is hard to put into words what this means to the players and coaches to earn a postseason bid. The Cowboys are 19-13 this season, after finishing 12-18 in Schroyer's first campaign.

“This is a big step in the development of our program," Schroyer said. "Our kids have worked extremely hard and we are really, really excited to have this opportunity. Only about a third of the over 300 NCAA Division I programs get a chance to play in the postseason each year, so this is special.

“The fans have been so supportive of us this season. I hope they will come out to recognize our kids for their hard work, help us try to get our 20th win of the season and take another step in this tournament.”

Northeastern finished 18-12 this season and was 12-6 and tied for third in the Colonial Athletic Association this season with Old Dominion. The CAA was won by Virginia Commonwealth (VCU), with George Mason finishing in second place.

Ticket prices for Tuesday night’s game are $18 for adult tickets in the lower level, $15 for adult tickets in the upper level and $6 for youth and student tickets. Tickets will go on sale on Monday at 8 a.m. through the University of Wyoming Athletics Ticket Office and online at www.WyomingAthletics.com. Ticket office phone numbers are: (800) 922-9461 and (307) 766-4850.

Season-ticket holders can reserve the same seats they had during the regular season by calling the ticket office prior to 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

Wyoming becomes the second Mountain West Conference team to participate in the CBI. Utah played in the inaugural CBI last season and defeated UTEP 81-69 in the first round, before losing at Tulsa 69-60. Tulsa went on to defeat Bradley in the unique best of three championship series that was introduced by the CBI in 2008 and will continue again this year.

The College Basketball Invitational is a single-elimination tournament, up until the best of three championship series, with all games being played at campus sites. Prior to the semifinals, the remaining teams will be re-seeded. The championship series is a best of three (home-away-home) in which the higher seeded team will host the first and last (if necessary) home games.
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South Regional
Tuesday's Games
7 p.m. -- Northeastern (18-12) vs. Wyoming (19-13)
9 p.m. -- UTEP (19-12) vs. Nevada (21-12)
East Regional
Wednesday's Games
5 p.m. -- St. John's (16-17) vs. Richmond (18-15)
6 p.m. -- Charleston (26-8) vs. Troy (19-12)
West Regional
Wednesday's Games
6 p.m. -- Vermont (23-8) vs. Green Bay (22-10)
8 p.m. -- Houston (21-11) vs. Oregon St. (13-17)
Midwest Regional
Wednesday's Games
6 p.m. -- Buffalo (21-11) vs. Wichita St. (16-16)
8 p.m. -- Boise State (19-12) vs. Stanford (18-13)

Cowboys never get going and fall to Utes in semifinals

Wyoming-Utah boxscore

LAS VEGAS -- Everything the Wyoming Cowboys did well to knock off New Mexico the night before, they couldn’t do against Utah, falling to the Utes 68-55 on Friday in a semifinal game of the Mountain West Conference Tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The Utes also had another big game from the league’s top player, Luke Nevill, and earned their third lop-sided win of the year against the Cowboys. In their three wins over Wyoming, the Utes have won by an average of 15.6 points a game.

“My hat is off to Utah. I think they're really, really good,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said. “When you beat the SEC champion by 30 early in the year, it just tells you how good they are. My hat's off to them. They're very, very good.”

The 7-foot-2 Nevill, who struggled some against TCU the night before, made sure that didn’t happen two nights in a row, scoring 10 of the team’s first 13 points and then did that again in the second half after the Cowboys had cut the lead to five. He finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds.

“They got like a 9-foot wall, 9-foot building sitting there in the paint," Wyoming senior guard Brandon Ewing said. "It's tough to get an inside presence going. Basketball, you got to go inside-out. But we couldn't really do that today because they real big and real long down there, especially with Luke Nevill on the defensive end, kind of tough to get things going.”

After hitting 10 of 19 3-pointers against the Lobos, the Cowboys never got going from the outside, hitting just 1-of-10.

“We missed a lot of easy ones that we definitely could have made. Sean missed some ones he's definitely capable of making,” Ewing said. “Same with me. But it just didn't go tonight."

Ewing, who was 0-of-3 from behind the arc, led the Cowboys with 13 points. Ogirri hit 1 of 3 3-pointers and finished with 12 points. The two had nine 3s the night before, combining for 37 points.

Ewing said Nevill’s size sets the tone defensive on the court for the Utes and the Cowboys didn’t respond.

“They were just physical with us like B said,” Ogirri said. “They got Nevill down, it's tough to get shots in the paint. They're just physical. It bothered me a little bit and we didn't make as many 3s as we have.”

Carlon Brown scored 13 points for the second-seeded Utes (23-9), who will face fourth-seeded San Diego State in Saturday's championship game after easily holding off the Cowboys for their 10th victory in 12 games.

After foul trouble limited Nevill's minutes in Utah's quarterfinal win over TCU, the Utes leaned squarely on their 7-foot-2 Australian center against Wyoming. The Mountain West's player of the year got the ball down low on most possessions in the second half, methodically scoring 12 points and passing out of double-teams by the smaller Cowboys (19-13).

Utah beat TCU one day earlier on a last-second 3-pointer by Lawrence Borha, but no such drama was required against Wyoming. Utah jumped out to an early 18-6 lead, although Wyoming stayed in it with most of its points coming from Ogirri and Ewing.

Utah led by as much as 13, as New Mexico did on Thursday, and the Cowboys battled back to make it a six-point halftime game.

Tyson Johnson and A.J. Davis led a 10-2 run by Wyoming in the second half to trim Utah's lead to 48-43, but Nevill then scored five consecutive points for the Utes before drawing the defense to leave Luka Drca open for a 3-pointer with 7:59 to play, and Utah's lead never dipped below nine points.

The Cowboys shot just 34 percent from the field (17-of-50) and had just three assists.

“They're really hard to score against because of their length,” Schroyer said. “They're just very, very big and long. They really do a good job of shortening gaps on the ball. Just really hard to get where you want to go on the floor. You know, I think that we space the floor pretty well. But they got a 7-2 guy down there that is really a defensive presence. Tillie is a 6-11 guy with a defensive presence. You're forced to make jump shots against them.

"When you look at our post guys' numbers, we had eight points from Ty and Adam (Waddell). It's not as much that we didn't get good looks and they weren't really working hard; it's just hard to establish a post presence against them. When you're always playing from the perimeter, it's really tough.”

The Cowboys now wait for a chance to earn their first postseason bid since the 2003 season in which Wyoming lost to North Carolina in the NIT.

Cowboys upset Lobos

Cowboys-Lobos stats

By Wyoming Sports.org

LAS VEGAS -- After last Saturday’s one-point loss to New Mexico to close the regular-season, the Wyoming Cowboys knew they were close to making a breakthrough.

On Thursday in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference Tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center, they broke through.

Wyoming rallied from a 13-point deficit in the first half and defeated the Lobos 75-67 to solidify their postseason hopes.

“I'm just really, really happy for our guys,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said. “I thought that they just gutted out a great win. I'm happy for the fans that made the trip here. It was a big win for our program, but most importantly for our players. A lot of people counted them out, but I love these guys. They got a lot of fight to them. I'm just really speechless because I'm just
so happy for these kids.”

Wyoming (19-12) moves on to face Utah (9:30 p.m.), which beat TCU 61-58 earlier Thursday.

Wyoming guard Brandon Ewing, who was obviously disappointed in the Senior Day loss to the Lobos just a few days ago, said they had plenty of motivation this time around.

They didn’t want to leave Las Vegas just yet.

“We don't want to go home. We don't want to be back in Laramie (Friday),” Ewing said. “We definitely don't want to do that. On Sunday, we know we're not getting in. Probably call us for the NIT or other tournament. We don't want to do that. We want to be home on Sunday eating popcorn, knowing they're going to call our game. For us to do that, we have to win two more games.”

The Cowboys got 20 points from Ewing, including four 3-pointers and 17 more from senior guard Sean Ogirri, who canned five 3-pointers. As a team, the Cowboys were red hot from beyond the arc, hitting 10 of 19 attempts.

The Cowboys didn’t start the game hit, missing six of their first seven shots and trailing 12-4 before they could respond. New Mexico still had the upper hand and looked as if it would put the game away early. But Wyoming rallied and cut the lead to 33-29 at halftime and the game was on.

The Cowboys too their first lead since 2-0 at 39-37 on a basket by sophomore Djibril Thiam, and after New Mexico coach Steve Alford was hit for a technical foul, the Cowboys led by four.

New Mexico responded with nine straight, but the Cowboys came back with vengeance, using 3-pointers by Ogirri and Ewing and four straight points from Tyson Johnson for a 55-47 lead.

The game turned into a free-throw shooting contest in the final minutes and the Cowboys were able to prevail. The Lobos pulled within four with 38 seconds left, but Ewing and Johnson both hit a pair for free throws in the final seconds to clinch the win.

Thiam, who scored all of his 10 points in the second half, keyed a late run for Wyoming with several dunks, including a three-point play when he was fouled intentionally.

Ewing said the Cowboys just had to get over some early nerves to get going.

“We were so excited to play,” he said. “We watched The Mountain just like everybody else does, and everybody counted us out. They knew New Mexico was going to be in the championship game. We came in this game with a lot of pride. We didn't want to lose this game. We were so nervous at tip-off. I think we missed a lot of easy shots. They made some shots. Once we got the nerves out, we played pretty good.”

Dairese Gary scored 20 points for New Mexico (21-11), which was just 3-of-23 on 3-pointers in a loss that endangers their chances of making the NCAA tournament.

For the Lobos, who were on Cloud Nine after beating Wyoming last Saturday for a share of the league title, it was a tough way to begin the tournament. New Mexico hasn’t won a tourney game since winning the title four years ago.

“You got to give Wyoming and Heath Schroyer credit -- they did a great job,” said New Mexico assistant coach Craig Neal, who was speaking for Alford, who left the arena immediately after the game to attend his mother-in-law’s funeral. “It was a good game. They were well prepared and they played well. You've got to give them a lot of credit.

“I feel very, very unfortunate for our senior players on our team. At this time, you have to win to advance. This is the time of March, and you have to -- if you want to keep playing in March, you have to win games. We've talked about it for a while. So it's a sad ending to a season that we had a lot of success. And I really feel unfortunate for our team.”

The Cowboys will now face a Utah squad that also owned two wins over Wyoming this season.

Ewing said he hopes the Cowboys are saving the best for last.

“To be blessed enough to win this tournament, we got some great players in this league, some great teams, some great coaches,” Ewing said. “If Wyoming was to pull it off, I'd be happy. I told coach, I'd be the first one to hug him back in August if we win it. It's one game at a time. I don't want to look forward to it right now. We got a tough player in Utah, the player of the year, Luke
Nevill. If we're blessed enough to pull that one out, it's down to one more.”

Ewing earns first team honors

Wyoming senior Brandon Ewing

Wyoming Cowboy senior Brandon Ewing finally made it to the top, as he was named First Team All-MWC team on Monday.

Also for the Cowboys, redshirt freshman Afam Muojeke was selected as the Freshman of the Yea, in a vote by MWC head coaches and media members. Senior Tyson Johnson and redshirt senior Sean Ogirri were also honored, as each were named Honorable Mention All-MWC.

For Ewing, this marks the first time in his career that he has been named to the MWC’s First Team. As a freshman, he was a Third Team All-MWC selection and was then a second team selection as a sophomore and junior. He is the first player in MWC history to earn all-conference honors four times.

During conference games this season, Ewing led the MWC in both scoring and assists, averaging 18.6 points and 5.06 assists a game. He currently leads the MWC in all games in each category, and is on pace to become the first player in league history to do so. He is also on track to become the first player to lead the league in scoring in three consecutive seasons, as he finished both his sophomore and junior years as the MWC’s leading scorer.

Muojeke was the MWC’s leading scorer and rebounder among freshmen. During conference games, he averaged 12.4 points and 6.3 rebounds a game. In all games, he is the 11th leading scorer and 12th leading rebounder in the MWC, with respective averages of 14.0 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. Muojeke is the second Cowboy to earn MWC Freshman of the Year honors, as Jay Straight received the honor in 2001-02.

Johnson ranks among the MWC’s best in six different statistical categories. On the season, he is the third leading rebounder and 13th leading scorer, averaging 7.6 rebounds and 13.5 rebounds a game. He also ranks among the league’s top-10 in field goal percentage, free throw percentage, defensive rebounds and minutes played.

Ogirri is the best single-season 3-point shooter in the history of the MWC, as he is the conference’s record holder with 103 thus far this season. He ranks 10th in the nation and first in the MWC in 3-pointers per game with 3.43. His 3-point percentage of 42.4 ranks 21st in the nation and second in the MWC. He averaged 14.6 points per game in conference play, which ranked ninth in the league.

Utah’s Luke Nevill was selected as both the MWC’s Player and Defensive Player of the Year. TCU’s Zvonko Buljan was the Newcomer of the Year, Utah’s Shaun Green was the Sixth Man of the Year and New Mexico’s Steve Alford was the Coach of the Year.
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First Team
Luke Nevill, Utah** Sr. C 7-2 265
Lee Cummard, BYU** Sr. G 6-7 190
Jimmer Fredette, BYU So. G 6-2 195
Tony Danridge, New Mexico Sr. G/F 6-5 215
Brandon Ewing, Wyoming*** Sr. G 6-2 190
Second Team
Daniel Faris, New Mexico Sr. C 6-9 235
Kyle Spain, San Diego State Sr. F 6-5 220
Lorrenzo Wade, San Diego State* Sr. F 6-6 225
Kevin Langford, TCU* Sr. F 6-8 245
Wink Adams, UNLV** Sr. G 6-0 200
Third Team
Jonathan Tavernari, BYU* Jr. G/F 6-6 215
Marcus Walker, Colorado State* Sr. G 6-0 175
Richie Williams, San Diego State Sr. G 5-10 162
René Rougeau, UNLV Sr. G 6-6 210
Lawrence Borha, Utah Sr. G 6-3 205
All Defensive Team
Luke Nevill, Utah Sr. C 7-2 265
Jackson Emery, BYU So. G 6-3 185
Richie Williams, San Diego State Sr. G 5-10 162
René Rougeau, UNLV Sr. G 6-6 210
Lawrence Borha, Utah Sr. G 6-3 205
Honorable Mention All-Mountain West
Andrew Henke, Sr., G, Air Force
Roman Martinez, Jr., F, New Mexico
Chad Toppert, Sr., G, New Mexico
Billy White, So., F, San Diego State
Zvonko Buljan, Jr., C, TCU
Carlon Brown, So., G, Utah
Luka Drca, Jr., G, Utah
Shaun Green, Sr., F, Utah
Tyler Kepkay, Sr., G, Utah
Tyson Johnson, Sr., F, Wyoming
Sean Ogirri, Sr., G, Wyoming

Lobos celebrate first league title in 16 years

Richard Anderson photo
New Mexico coach Steve Alford reacts to a technical foul against him Saturday against the Cowboys.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

New Mexico coach Steve Alford showed his emotions with a resounding yell, along with aggressive bearhugs of players and coaches after his Lobos held off Wyoming 74-73 on Saturday at the Arena-Auditorium.

You can’t blame him.

New Mexico hadn’t won a league title since 1994, and just like that last one, it did it on the road.

The Lobos, 21-10, 12-4 in the Mountain West, earned a share of the conference regular-season title with Utah and BYU.

“This team really has learned how to win and win differently,” Alford said. “I just couldn’t be happier. This is our first league championship in 16 years; it’s the first one since we joined the Mountain West. We’re obviously very excited about it.”

In his second year at the helm, Alford said the Lobos are developing a championship way of thinking.

“We’ve been close. We‘ve had a lot of second places and a lot of upper-division places,” Alford said. To do this in year two -- 11 wins last year in the league and 12 this year -- it’s been great. It’s great for our young guys. Winning kind of breeds winning.”

Tony Danridge led the Lobos with 29 points -- his second straight game that he has scored 29. Danridge finished 14-of-20 from the field.

“If he is not putting up MVP numbers, I don’t know who is,“ Alford said. “He has been tremendous.”

As far as Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer is concerned, Danridge is a stud.

“When you have a fifth-year senior who has been in the program for that long and you are playing for a championship, you expect him to step up and he had 29," Schroyer said.

Danridge also had 29 points in his last outing on Tuesday in the 77-71 win over Utah.

“It was one of those nights. He put together a good week,” said Wyoming senior Brandon Ewing, who scored 16 points but couldn’t get his last-second runner to fall. “He’s a fifth-year senior and he knows what it takes to win. I’m sure he wants to go out a winner, too.”

Danridge finished 10-of-14 from the field, with a variety of shots from the outside and down low. Schroyer said they wanted Danridge to shoot jump shots because he is tough to guard when he is going to the rim.

“He’s so strong and athletic,” Schroyer said. “He’s probably the best athlete in the league. We wanted him to shoot the pull-up jumper. He made enough of them.”

A couple of other unsung heroes for the Lobos on Saturday were seniors Chad Toppert and Roman Martinez.

Toppert, one of the top long-range shooters in the country, was just 1-of-8 from the field, but his lone basket was a big one. It came with 1 minute, 21 seconds left and it proved to be the game-winner.

“Top (Toppert) couldn’t make a shot all night and he makes a huge shot late in the game,” Alford said.

Ewing said he was surprised that Toppert had a tough night, yet surprised on the one shot that he did make.

“Anything he shoots, you think is going in, but on that one, I didn’t think it was going in because it was out of his game plan, his nature," Ewing said. “When he put it on the floor, I figured it would come off the rim and Tyson (Johnson) would come up with the rebound and we would be up one and they would start fouling.”

Martinez scored 15 points on 5 of 8 3-point shooting. The rest of the team was just 2-of-14 from beyond the 3-point arc.

“We got caught on a couple of screens, but on a couple of them, we were right there; he’s a good shooter,” Schroyer said.

In the end, all the Wyoming coach could say was hats off to the Lobos.

“It was well-deserved. They are a championship caliber team,” Schroyer said.

Alford, meanwhile, said they were going to enjoy this win all of the way back to Albuquerque and possibly all of the way to the NCAA Tournament, regardless of next week’s MWC tourney.

“We win our league and our league is the sixth or seventh best league in the country," Alford said. “I hear about all of these other leagues and stuff, but I don’t care if you are tied with four or five teams in your league. If it’s the sixth or seventh best league in the country and you win it, we’re league champs.

“We have played really good basketball since mid-December and hopefully that gets looked at. We go 12-4 in a great league, and if that doesn’t get you in, it is going to be hard to get in.”

Cowboys, Lobos Part III on tap

Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming sophomore Djibril Thiam drives on New Mexico's Roman Martinez on Saturday.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

The Wyoming Cowboys won’t have to look deep into their vaults to prepare for next week’s Mountain West Conference Tournament. They just have to look at their last game, Saturday’s 74-73 loss to New Mexico in the Arena-Auditorium.

Wyoming and New Mexico will meet on Thursday at 9:30 p.m. in the quarterfinals of the tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said that preparation-wise, it may be a little easier because they have been through the films and there is only one more film to break down.

Besides, he said he already knows the Lobos, who clinched at least a three-way tie for the MWC regular-season title with the win on Saturday, are a good team.

“They are a NCAA tournament team, so we obviously are going to have to play very well,” Schroyer said. “This league is the best that it has ever been in its 10-year history. Our program is developing and our program is getting better, but they are a championship team. (Tony) Danridge, (Billy) Faris, (Roman) Martinez, ( Chad) Toppert, you look at those guys and they have been there for four or five years. They played together as freshman and they got their butts kicked. As juniors and seniors, they are pretty good.”

Whether the Cowboys first-round opponents are New Mexico, BYU, Utah or San Diego State, Schroyer said he doesn’t know if it makes much of a difference.

“They are all good,” he said. “I think that this league will get four bids. On any given night, we can beat anybody. We’re going to have to be ready to go, but I believe that. In the last two games, we came up short, but we’re pretty close. If we shore up a few things, we’ll go down to Vegas and let it go.”’

With Saturday’s scenario, one team is going to go into the tournament with some momentum and the other is not.

The Cowboys, losers of two straight after a four-game win streak, are losing their momentum once again, especially on Senior Night as Brandon Ewing, Sean Ogirri and Tyson Johnson played for the final time in the regular-season on their home court.

“I wanted to go out a winner. I had never lost on Senior Night,” Ewing said. “I wanted to send my seniors out with a win, but it just happened on my senior night, we lost by one.”

Ewing, who missed a runner at the buzzer that could have given the Cowboys the win, said they should be the ones talking about momentum heading into the tournament.

“We definitely should have come up with the W,” he said. “There were a lot of small things that added up to something big. A lot of loose balls that we should have got, a lot of 50-50 balls that we didn’t win. And it came down to one possession.”

While the Lobos were celebrating their first league title since 1994, Ewing said that going into the tournament, everyone is 0-0 again.

“Everybody is shooting for the same goal, to get an outright bid by winning the conference tournament,” Ewing said.

The last two losses, meanwhile, are going to fire the Cowboys up a little more, Ewing said.

“We’ll be more hungry to play,” he said. “It’s down to three games now if we want to go to the NCAA Tournament. If you don’t want to go to the tournament, you shouldn’t come on this trip.’

Close, but not close enough for Cowboys in loss to Lobos

Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming senior Brandon Ewing is bumped by a couple of New Mexico defenders on Saturday.

Cowboys-Lobos stats

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer knows that Cowboy fans don’t want to hear it and he doesn’t like to say it, but the difference between winning and losing for his team at times this season might be a marginal space between his thumb and index-finger.

“Right now, we’re down -- I’m down and the team is down,” Schroyer said after the Cowboys tough 74-73 loss to New Mexico Saturday in the Arena-Auditorium. “We’re going to have to lick our wounds and get ready to play in Vegas.

"We’ve just played two championship teams here and we had a chance to win both. When you take a step back, it has been a long time since this program has had a chance to win against a championship team here. We’re getting closer. No one wants to hear that today and no one wants to hear that tomorrow, but that’s the truth. We have a lot of basketball left, and it starts on Thursday.”

Just how close were the Cowboys on Saturday? If Tyson Johnson’s point-blank shot would have gone with 56 seconds left, or Brandon Ewing’s off-balance layup with seconds remaining goes in, the Cowboys would have been talking about a great momentum-building win instead of another disappointing defeat.

Trailing by one point with 35.4 seconds left, the Cowboys chose to run time off of the clock and go with a three-option set.

The first option was to go to Johnson on the post. The second option was to go to Sean Ogirri off of a screen, and the third option was for Ewing to drive to the basket.“We got to the third option and we got a shot to go up, it just didn’t go down,” Schroyer said.

While the three options were there, Schroyer and the Cowboys had different ideas of what order those options were.

“Sean had the ball and I think they kind of surprised us because they had a big guy on him,” Ewing said. “Everything as moving so fast. I was the second option and I came and got it. I went to the rim and I just saw an easy layup. They rotated and I just went through the lane and it just came up short.”

Ogirri said he thought the New Mexico defender was going to was going to clear out, but he fought through the screen.

“B was the second option and whatever he did I was fine with,” Ogirri said. “We set it up and we ended up missing it.”

New Mexico coach Steve Alford said it was do or die for his defense.

“We just decided to go man, that’s been our mainstay,” Alford said. “We challenged them, told them that they had to get a stop. I talk to them about just getting nasty defensively. We had to get that stop.”

New Mexico’s Chad Toppert, who had been scoreless for the game, hit what proved to be the game-winner with a short jumper with 1 minutes, 21 seconds remaining.

Wyoming had a chance to regain the lead, but Johnson’s short layup attempt under the basket with 56 seconds left hung on the rim before falling off.

“I just missed it; I should have made it,” Johnson said. “I spun, and everyone knows I can spin. I should have made it."

The Cowboys got the ball back after New Mexico turned it over on a Tony Danridge traveling call with 35 seconds left, setting up the final play for Wyoming.

“We had a couple of possessions earlier and we had a lot of breakdowns in the game,” Johnson said. “It came down to one possession and we just couldn’t get the shot to go in.”

Schroyer was asked after the game if they thought about using their remaining time out with about 10 seconds left as the options were breaking down.

He answered with an emphatic “no.”

Ewing agreed and said they had the right game plan.

“It came down to one shot and I didn’t make it,” Ewing said.

Cowboys seniors consider UW home

Richard Anderson photos

From left, Wyoming seniors Brandon Ewing, Sean Ogirri and Tyson Johnson.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Sean Ogirri and Tyson Johnson wished they would have come to Wyoming earlier than they did; Brandon Ewing hopes he can come back and keep Laramie a part of his life.

The three Cowboy seniors will be honored Saturday before they play their final regular-season home game of their careers, as Wyoming hosts New Mexico at 2 p.m. in the A-A.

Ogirri didn’t have to travel as far to Wyoming, compared to Ewing or Johnson. The Denver native knew what he was getting into, albeit for a short stay in Laramie.

Ewing, from Chicago and Johnson, from Long Island, N.Y., not so much.

Their stay at the University of Wyoming, however, has been one that they won’t forget.

“It’s been real fun. I’ve met a lot of people here,” Johnson said. “Just having the whole Wyoming experience, coming from New York, I’ve had a lot of fun in the last two years. It’s definitely a lot slower here, a lot less people, but just trying new things, like going to the mountains and stuff like that, has been great.”

Ewing had a little bit of an idea of what Wyoming was all about, as he followed fellow Chicago native Jay Straight to the Rocky Mountains.

By now, Ewing said he considers Wyoming his second home, the people of Laramie are his second family.

“If I make it to the NBA, I might just buy a house in Laramie and come back when I can and check up on everybody,” Ewing said.

Ogirri actually left Denver for Wichita State, but after some coaching changes, made his way back closer to home. If circumstances had been different, he would have been here sooner.

“If I had the same coaches and same players, definitely,” said Ogirri, when asked if he would have liked to come here for his entire career. “I love the coaches, I love the players. I just like Wyoming.”

Ewing, Johnson and Ogirri all admit that there will be some emotion to deal with before the game.

“It’s going to be sad to go out; I wish I had another two years here,” Johnson said. “But Senior Day should be fun.”

Ewing said he will have mixed emotions on Saturday.

“I gave my heart and soul to this university, but it is also exciting to see what the fans will bring me on my last game,” Ewing said.

The game is also important for the Cowboys to pick up some momentum before next week’s Mountain West Conference Tournament. Because of that, Ogirri said they will have to bottle their emotions by tip-off.

“The only thing we want is a win,” Ogirri said. “I’ll be trying as hard as I can because it is my last game here and all of my family and friends will be here. I just want to do everything I can for my team.”

Emotions will not only run high for the three seniors and their family, but for the Wyoming coach staff.

“Saturday will be an emotional day for me because of the way our seniors have helped turn this program around,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said. “They will leave the program better than they sound it."

Ewing will leave as one of the top players in Wyoming basketball history. He is ranked among the top 10 of UW’s career leaders in 12 of 16 categories. Most notably, Ewing is the second leading scorer and assist man in school history, while also starting the most career games.

“I was at the retirement home, doing volunteer work, and they showed me the paper. I didn’t know I had so many records,” Ewing said. “It will be great to sit back and see what you did, but for now, I will be trying to get a win and get to the tournament.”

Johnson transferred to Wyoming from Blinn Community College and has made a strong impact during his two-year career as a Cowboy. This season, Johnson ranks among the MWC’s best in seven statistical categories. He is also Wyoming’s top rebounder and fourth leading scorer.

“I’ve been pretty happy; it could have been better, but things have gone pretty well. That’s why I wish I had another two years under Coach Schroyer, knowing his system a little more,” Johnson said. “I kind of feel like a sophomore, to be honest with you.”

Ogirri has made a major mark on the Cowboy program in just one season. He currently ranks 12th in the nation in made 3-pointers per game and 23rd in 3-point percentage. With 98 made 3-pointers this season, Ogirri is Wyoming’s all-time single-season leader and needs only two more to break the MWC’s record.

Ogirri can’t help but wonder house things would have gone if he could have played more than one year with Johnson and Ewing.

“Definitely. We've played well together this season so far. If we had more years together, I think we would have gotten a lot more wins,” Ogirri said.

Bienvenu Songondo will also be honored prior to the beginning of the game. Songondo, who lettered for the Cowboys from 2006-08, was unable to play during his senior season due to a knee injury.

Searching for their fifth straight win, the Cowboys stubbed their collective toes on Wednesday in the loss to BYU. At 18-11 overall, a strong finish could get them into some sort of post-season tournament.

Of course, winning the MWC tournament is first and foremost on their minds.

“We’ll take the NIT, that is great, but our main goal is to play one game at a time, win the MWC tournament, and we’ll be in the NCAA Tournament,” Ewing said.

If they win the league tournament, Ogirri said they will have some higher stakes to think about.
“I think we do have a lot of basketball left,” Ogirri said. “I guess we will see what happens.”

Although Wednesday night was a tough loss, Johnson said they have a “whole bunch” of confidence still in them. They want that to continue.

“If we come out on Senior Day and get a win against New Mexico, we’ll have a lot more confidence for the conference tournament,” Johnson said.

Yet, it’s still first things first -- the Senior Day ceremony.

“It will be sad at first, and I’m sure my Mom will be crying,” Ewing said. “ But after that, its game time.”

Ewing earns All-District honors

Wyoming senior Brandon Ewing

With the 2008-09 college basketball season winding down and awards beginning to roll out, Wyoming senior Brandon Ewing picked up his first honor on Thursday. Ewing was named to the All-District 17 Second Team by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).

Ewing, a Chicago, Ill. native, has been honored as a Second Team All-District selection by the NABC twice before in his career. He was named to the District 13 Second Team as both a sophomore and junior. The NABC realigned their districts this season, moving the majority of Mountain West Conference teams from District 13 to District 17.

Ewing is currently leading the MWC in both scoring and assists, averaging 18.7 points and 5.2 assists per game. He is one of only five players in the nation to rank in the top-50 of both categories, as he currently ranks 44th in scoring and 33rd in assists. He is on pace to become the first player in MWC history to lead the league in both categories.

On the season, Ewing has scored in double-figures in 27 of 29 games, while reaching the 20-point plateau 14 times.

Member coaches of the NABC vote on the All-District teams. This year, 240 student-athletes from 24 districts were honored. All 10 District 17 honorees are from the MWC.
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NABC All-District 17 First Team
Luke Nevill, Utah
Lee Cummard, Brigham Young
Wink Adams, UNLV
Kyle Spain, San Diego State
Lorrenzo Wade, San Diego State
NABC All-District 17 Second Team
Brandon Ewing, Wyoming
Tony Danridge, New Mexico
Kevin Langford, TCU
Rene Rougeau, UNLV
Daniel Faris, New Mexico

Johnson, Cowboys have a tough night

Richard Anderson photo
Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer talks to Tyson Johnson, while Afam Muojeke catches some air Wednesday against BYU.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Tyson Johnson had a game to forget Wednesday night against BYU. In the second half, so did the rest of the Cowboys.

Johnson and his teammates were looking for a strong finish against BYU and New Mexico. They’ll have to wait until Saturday for that finish against the Lobos.

Averaging 13.9 on the season, Johnson scored eight points on Wednesday in the 78-68 loss to BYU, hitting just 3-of-12 from the field.

As a team, the Cowboys missed 11 straight field goals down the stretch as BYU rallied from a five-point halftime deficit.

Johnson, who has been a force on the block this season for the Cowboys, got his chances but struggled to get the ball to go down.

Johnson had no excuses after the game and said it was all on his shoulders.

“I need to player better. I didn’t step up tonight, I let my team down,” Johnson said. “It was all me, it wasn’t what they were doing. It was just me not making shots.”

While Wyoming was stone cold at one point, Johnson was 0-for-3 in the final seven minutes and 1-for-8 in the second half.

“I just had to step up. It was a big game, but it was my fault,” Johnson said.

Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said that Johnson just had a tough night.

“They are big and they are long,” Schroyer said. “They put (Chris) Miles (6-foot-11) on him, which is different than they had in the past. But I thought we had good opportunities and Tyson will bounce back. We’ve rode Ty for a year and a half and we’ll saddle him up again on Saturday.”

Wyoming senior guard Brandon Ewing had 16 points and seven assists in the game, but he too struggled shooting the ball, hitting 6 of 14 attempts.

Although Johnson was having an off night, Ewing said it didn’t occur to him to try to go to someone else for some scoring punch.

“I don’t care if he goes 3-of-20,” Ewing said. “He’s a senior and he has been trough these wars. He’s had great games all year. I’m not going to go away from him just because he had a tough night. That would crazy on my part."

Senior Sean Ogirri led all scorers with 25 points, hitting six 3-pointers. But he too had somewhat of a Jekyll and Hyde shooting night. After hitting 5 of 10 3-pointers in the first half, Ogirri was just 1-of-5 in the second half.

“I think they just stayed close to me,” Ogirri said. “I went inside to run our offense. I tried to score more, but I didn’t get the job done.”

Schroyer said that BYU did a nice job in the second half of defending Ogirri, but the Cowboys did a poor job of not getting him more chances in the second half.

“We had some other opportunities to get him some great looks. We let those slip by,” Schroyer said. “It’s hard for someone to go for 17 in both halves. If Sean Ogirri scores 25, we’ll take that every day.”

The Cowboys shot just 33 percent in the second half and once again struggled for any consistency on offense. Wyoming got away with it in wins over Colorado State and Air Force, but couldn’t stay within striking distance against a good BYU team.

“I knew we were losing momentum, and it was kind of tough to get it back because they were slowing the tempo of the game,” Ewing said. “They did a great job with that.”

Schroyer said they just have to finish.

“We’ll go back and watch the film and try to find out why we have had a tough time on some of those things,” he said.

Cougars show experience down the stretch

Richard Anderson
BYU puts pressure on Wyoming junior Ryan Dermody on Wednesday.

Cowboys-Cougars stats

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming sports.org

Is BYU the New York Yankees of Mountain West Conference basketball? Wyoming head coach Heath Schroyer thinks so.

Down the stretch, BYU showed why it is fighting for the conference title. The young Cowboys showed why they are not there yet. The Cougars outscored Wyoming 21-8 in the final eight minutes to beat Wyoming 78-68 on Wednesday in the Arena-Auditorium.

“Mt hat’s off to BYU; they’re really good,” Schroyer said. “It’s like playing the Yankees. They are good every year. They made the plays down the stretch.”

BYU, 23-6, 11-4 in Mountain West, is tied with Utah and New Mexico for first place with one game to play.

“It’s great to coach guys who really, really compete,” said BYU head coach Dave Rose. “I think right now this group is in a position where we can find different ways to win and find different ways to shoot the ball. We were a little more aggressive going to the basket and getting to the free-throw line.”

Wyoming, 18-11, 7-8, led by 10 midway through the first half and was up 40-35 at halftime. The Cowboys still led by three with 8:13 to play, before the Cougars ran off 11 unanswered points to take control.

Lee Cummard, who led BYU with 24 points, scored seven straight points in that run and Jonathan Tavernari hit a 3-pointer to put the Cougars up 67-60.

“Lee Cummard kind of had his way towards the end,” Schroyer said. “That’s what guys do who have been through it -- two NCAA tournaments and three postseasons -- and they are going to go again. Those guys and that program are where we’re trying to go.”

The Cowboys, meanwhile, went over 10 minutes without scoring a field goal and never got back in the game.

Sean Ogirri led Wyoming with 25 points, 17 in the first half. Brandon Ewing followed with 16 and Afam Muojeke added 11 for the Cowboys. Wyoming shot just 33 percent from the field in the second half and missed 11 straight shots late in the game.

“We got some really good looks right at the basket and we had some free throws that just didn’t go down,” Schroyer said. “It was one of those things.”

Tavernari scored 19 and grabbed 11 rebounds and Jimmer Fredette added 15 points for BYU. The Cougars bench out-scored Wyoming 11-3 and BYU out-rebounded Wyoming 48-33.

“I thought our bench was terrific tonight; it was a real team effort,” Rose said. “With the championship race right now, this was a huge game for us.”

Cowboys have plenty to play for in March

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

The Wyoming Cowboys could play the spoiler in the next few days, although they have more important things on their minds.

Instead of being satisfied with putting a dent in the plans of BYU or New Mexico, the Cowboys are looking to help their own cause and keep the momentum going into next week’s Mountain West Conference tournament in Las Vegas.

Yes, a win over BYU on Wednesday in the A-A (6 p.m.) or over New Mexico on Saturday (1:30 p.m.) would seriously damage both teams’ hope to catch Utah for the regular-season league title.
But the Cowboys are more concerned with themselves and extending their season-high four-game win streak.

“There is a lot to play for, a lot of basketball left. We’re not satisfied yet,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said. “I believe that as the head coach. There is still some meat on this bone that we want to try to go get, so to speak. This is obviously a big week for us.”

Two wins would put the Cowboys in prime position to pick up some type of postseason play, whether it would be the NIT, the CBI or the CollegeInsider.com tourney. Of course, if the Cowboys win out this week and next week, they’ll be going to the NCAA Tournament.

“We’re just trying to keep the momentum going into the tournament,” Schroyer said. “We try to not to get too high or too low. We’re going to have to play our best basketball to have an opportunity to pull an upset at home.”

It was just a couple of weeks ago that the Cowboys were struggling at 14-10 and 3-7 in league play, with not much hope on the horizon. But two wins at home and two on the road have changed that perspective.

Schroyer said it was just a matter of talking to the team about the next day and trying to get better.

“I’ve always believed and always will believe that if you just try to get a little better each day, the wins at the end will take care of itself,” he said. “From the bye week, we just got better and recommitted as a program and that has carried us to winning the last four.”

The Cowboys are also 12-1 at home this season and will be looking to use a little home-court magic for two more games.

Schroyer said that like a lot of teams in college basketball, they are more comfortable on their own home court.

“It is an environment that, like probably everywhere else in this country, you just feel more comfortable at home, sleeping in your own bed,” he said. “Traveling in this league is so hard. We have so many new faces. We’re starting to figure out how to win some games on the road. We’re moving forward, but obviously we have to try to continue to play as well as we can.”

The one thing that the Cowboys have going against them this week is the fact that they are facing two teams that also have a lot to play for and are likely NCAA tournament bound. And the Cougars have won eight straight against Wyoming, to make matters worse.

“I think we obviously know that BYU is the cream of the crop and they have been among the best in this league the last four or five years,” Schroyer said. “For us to have an opportunity to play them at home, it is big for our fans, big for our guys. We’re just trying to play our best basketball and we’re playing pretty well.”

Cowboys looking to put 'cheeks in the seats' for BYU, New Mexico

UW coach Heath Schroyer tries to get crowd fired up.

By Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

The Arena-Auditorium hasn’t exactly seemed like the Dome of Doom lately for the Wyoming Cowboys, although they have won 12 of 13 home games this season.

The fans in the stands and the noise decibels are nothing comparable to some of the best years in the Arena-Auditorium.

With two of the top teams in the Mountain West Conference -- BYU and New Mexico -- on tap for the final home games of the season, and the Cowboys shooting for a possible postseason berth, that all could change.

At least, that is what Wyoming officials are hoping for Wednesday night against the Cougars (6 p.m.) and Saturday afternoon (1:30 p.m.) against the Lobos.

Attendance at the Arena-Auditorium has steadily dropped in the last six years, with an all-time low 5,262 fans last season. In the 13 home game this year, the Cowboys are averaging just above that mark at 5,280 per game, although the numbers are up a bit more in the first six conference games (5,629).

The last time Wyoming averaged over 10,000 fans a game was the 2002-2003 season (10,108). The last time Wyoming drew over 10,000 fans in a game was on Jan. 29, 2005, when 10,025 saw the Cowboys beat Colorado State, 69-56.

Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer was asked during his weekly MWC media teleconference if he and Wyoming officials were planning anything special to get more fans to the games this week.

“I know that they were going to meet on Monday to talk about it, but I am not a marketing guy. All I know is we are playing pretty good basketball,” Schroyer said. “For us, I want the fans in the state to come out and watch us play two games against two probable NCAA Tournament teams at home. It’s been a long time since this program has played meaningful games in February and March. This week is big.”

The Cowboy Joe club sent out an e-mail release later on Monday to members, inviting UW fans to come out and support the team this week.

Here is that release:
“It is with great pleasure that we announce that the 18-10 (7-7 MWC conference) Cowboy Basketball program has a legitimate opportunity at a post-season berth if they can finish strong the final two games of the regular season. Currently the CBI (College Basketball Invitational) and NIT (National Invitation Tournament) have expressed interest in the Cowboys, and we can still obviously win the Mountain West Conference’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. But each and any of these opportunities are going to require the support of Poke Nation.

“We greatly encourage you, your friends, your colleagues and your family to join us for the final two home men’s basketball games, taking place in Laramie at the Arena-Auditorium. Wednesday’s game versus rival BYU (6 p.m. tip-off) and Saturday’s final home regular season game vs. New Mexico (1:30 p.m. tip-off) will determine our opportunity for a chance at the post-season and we need YOU as our 6th Man!

“Over the past twenty seasons, or since 1988-89, the Cowboy basketball program has had just 6 post-season opportunities. Chances at the post-season do not come easily and the Cowboys are going to look to you to help them in this challenge. We need to have the Arena-Auditorium rocking with the loud and proud Cowboy fans we know so many of you are. Please come out to these final two games and please support the Pokes.

“If you do not currently have tickets for either Wednesday or Saturday’s games, please feel free to contact the Wyoming Athletic Ticket Office at 307-766-4850 or you can reply to me directly and I will be happy to order them for you. Tickets cost just $18 each. “If you already have Cowboy tickets, but won’t be able to make it to either game, we encourage you to give them to someone who can. If all else fails, please let me know and I am happy to get them to someone who can use them. We need “cheeks in the seats” as they say and the Cowboys need your support these final two home games.

“Please feel free to forward this email to fellow Wyoming supporters, and thank you for your support. We look forward to seeing YOU this Wednesday the 4th and this Saturday the 7th! GO POKES!!!!”

Schroyer said that this is not a make or break week for the program, but it is a chance to play some of the “cream of the crop” teams in the league at home.

“I just hope the fans come out,” he said. “We’ve made some real strides as a program; we’ve made some real strides as a team. For us to have an opportunity to win these games, it (A-A) has got to be rockin’. I can’t put it any more blunt than that."