Jackrabbits pounce on Cowboys

UW-SDSU boxscore

by Bobby Abplanalp
Wyoming Sports.org

Surprise, surprise. Evidently, the Wyoming Cowboys were.

The South Dakota State Jackrabbits got the Cowboys attention early and never let up, crushing Wyoming 77-61 Friday night at the Arena-Auditorium in the season opener for both teams

From start to finish, it was clear who was the better team was . After Wyoming took a 4-2 lead, it was all South Dakota State after that, using a 13-0 run to all but seal it.

It may be signs of a young team still learning to play together, but one thing is for sure, the Jackrabbits came to win, taking a 45-25 lead at the break. The Cowboys tried to rally in the second half, but could not get any closer than 16 points, and South Dakota State put the pedal to the metal and cruised out to a 28 point lead at 72-44.

Afam Muojeke had a game high 19 points with teammate A.J. Davis chipping in 14, but it was not nearly enough. Muojeke said the team wasn’t ready.

“We took these guys lightly and we got what we deserved,” he said.

While the Jackrabbits caught the Cowboys off guard, South Dakota State coach Scott Nagy said his team came out and played exactly the way he expected them to play.

"Nobody knows South Dakota State, but we have a pretty good basketball team," Nagy said. "We have some pretty tough kids and we shoot the ball pretty good, and that's what gave us the lead."

South Dakota State was led by Clint Sargent’s 18 points on six of 10 shooting, while Kai Williams threw in 17 on six of seven from the field.

“My hats off to Coach Nagy and South Dakota State,” UW head Coach Heath Schroyer said. “They’re very good. We knew that coming in and we knew it would be a big test for us. They’re so experienced and they’re so good at running their style to our young guys and they handed it to us pretty well.”

After scoring 24 fastbreak points last week in their exhibition win over Regis University, Wyoming had just two points off of the break against South Dakota State. Slowing down the Cowboys was Nagy's main objective.

"The key for us was getting them (Wyoming) out of the fast break because they're so much bigger and more athletic than us," Nagy said. "If we could get them into the half court, get in and make them shoot the ball from the outside, I knew that we had a chance."

Sargent and Williams combined for eight 3-pointers in the first half and the Jackrabbits finished the game by hitting 11-of-21, to just 3-of-13 for Wyoming. South Dakota State also shot 53 percent from the field, to just 42 percent for the Cowboys. The Jackrabbits also out-rebounded the Cowboys 30-29.

The Pokes will try and regroup when they take on the Peru (Neb.) State Bobcats Wednesday night in the Arena-Auditorium at 7 p.m.