Vols run by Cowboys in second half

Cowboys-Volunteers box

By Wyoming Sports.org

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The Wyoming Cowboys showed that they can play with the best at times.

At other times, they showed that it can be a struggle. Add it all up and it was No. 8/9 Tennessee dominating in the end with a 77-58 victory Tuesday night at Thompson-Boling Arena.

The Cowboys scored the game’s first seven points, then fell behind by six before running out to a 10-point lead. A late Tennessee run put the Vols up by one at halftime.

It was still just a three-point game midway through the second half before Tennessee took control against a sloppy and cold-shooting Wyoming team.

"No one at this level is into moral victories,“ Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said. “At the same token, we are getting better as a basketball team. This team is starting to grow up. We played toe-to-toe with a potential Final Four team in their building. There is a lot of good things to take from the game. We will obviously look at the negatives and try to fix those.

"There were some positives, as well. I am proud of our guys. For about 20 minutes we were toe to toe with one of the most talented teams in the country. I thought our press was good, but we just kind of ran out of gas for a stretch. (Tennessee) is really good in this building and there was about a six minute stretch where the game got away from us. Offensively, we were very inept for about six or seven minutes and that was the difference in the game.”

The Vols (8-1) struggled to slow down the normally high-scoring Cowboys (5-5) in the first half, but Tennessee's defensive pressure and fast break offense wore Wyoming down in the second.
Leading by one point at halftime, the Vols ran out to a 57-49 lead with 14:45 to go on a steal and layup by Scotty Hopson, who led Tennessee with 14 points. Tennessee forced 29 turnovers, a lot of those coming from the Vols taking charge and charges inside.

The Cowboys shot 46 percent from the field in the first half and hit four 3-pointers. The second half was another story, as they shot just 26 percent and could night hit a 3-pointer.

"It was a good win. I think we learned a lot. We stepped up, so I am pleased,” Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said. “The first half was very, very, up-tempo, but a little sloppy. The game was played pretty much the way I thought it would be played.

"We did not finish as much as we should have attacking the pressure. In the first half, after we got done attacking pressure, we rarely pulled it out and ran the offense. The tempo was so high. When you go against a pressing team like us, attack in numbers, but do not settle and take a quick shot every time. I thought that was one thing that we did in the first half.”

Wayne Chism had 14 points for Tennessee and Tyler Smith added 10.

Afam Muojeke led the Cowboys with 15 points, with 13 coming in the first half. The Volunteers finished two short of a season high with 15 steals, and held Wyoming to 18 points in the second half.

"Jason Shay made an excellent observation at halftime and it impacted the way I coached the second half," Pearl said. “This team cannot beat us in the half-court game. It was nothing new, because we had talked about not allowing the tempo to get us playing so fast that we did not take care of the basketball. It got me to slow things down a little bit more. I did not press them as much in the second half. What happened then was we wore them out."

Schroyer called Tennessee as good of a full-court pressure team in the country, and in the long run, the Cowboys will learn from the experience.

“We have never played a team where it is that hard to get the ball inbounds underneath our own basket,” Schroyer said. “They are unbelievable at that. They are talented and they are well-coached. They are very good in this building. It is all the above. They are as good as advertised."