Cowboys pull away to beat USD

by Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

After a season-high 29 turnovers in the 19-point loss to Tennessee, the Wyoming Cowboys had a season-low nine turnovers Sunday against South Dakota.

The end result were predictable, as the Cowboys stopped the Coyotes 86-74 in the Arena-Auditorium.

"I'm excited about how we shared the ball," Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said. "We only had nine turnovers, which was a low for us, especially against the zone. I thought we attacked the zone better than we had all year. There were a lot of good positives."

The Cowboys (6-5) used a late run to lead 40-33 at halftime and then controlled the second half to pick up the win. Up 59-50, A.J. Davis scored six points and Wyoming led by double digits the rest of the way, leading by as much as 19.

"I thought it was a really good win for us," Schroyer said. "They (South Dakota) are a very good offensive team; they average over 80 points a game and shoot the 3 38 percent. I thought we did a nice job."

Sophomore Afam Muojeke, who was 7 of 16 from the field -- including 5 of 14 3-pointers -- led the Cowboys with 19 points. Wyoming made a season high seven 3-pointers.

Steve Smith, a 6-foot-11, 265-pound center, hit five 3-pointers and led the Coyotes (6-5) with 25 points. Tyler Cain added 12 and Roman Gentry 10 points for South Dakota.

"Offensively, I thought we were a little better tonight ... there were some positives in this game," South Dakota coach Dave Boots said. "I'm not going to beat up on our guys. We could have played better; we just didn't shoot the ball like we could."

Djibril Thiam finished with 15 points, followed by Davis with 14 and Desmar Jackson with 13 for the Cowboys, who shot 47 percent from the field (33-of-70), including 54 percent in the second half. Wyoming outscored South Dakota 50-28 in the paint.

Wyoming also blocked 10 shot and had seven steals, to no blocks and three steals for South Dakota. The Coyotes hit 41 percent of their 3-pointers (10-of-24), but shot just 38 percent overall in the game (26-of-68).

"They (Wyoming) are a difficult team to play against," Boots said. "Give them credit -- they played well tonight. They were really good defensively. We only shot 38 percent; that was a big key." 　

The Cowboys will hit the road for a Mountain West Conference/Missouri Valley Conference matchup Tuesday against Northern Iowa, beginning at 6 p.m. in Cedar Falls.