Cowboys come up big

John McKnight photo
Wyoming freshman Desmar Jackson drives on Utah's Jason Washburn Wednesday night.

by Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

No Afam Muojeke, no problem for the Wyoming Cowboys Wednesday against Utah.

Desmar Jackson scored 21 points as Wyoming rallied past Utah 75-69 in the Arena-Auditorium, breaking a three-game losing skid.

The Cowboys (2-4 MWC, 9-11) lost a 12-point lead in the second half and trailed by three with three minutes remaining, but outscored Utah 11-2 down the stretch.

It was the first game for the Cowboys without Muojeke (the team's leading scorer at 16.8 points a game), who is out for the season after injuring his knee last week against BYU.

“Losing Afam, that’s tough,” Wyoming sophomore Adam Waddell said. “But we all know that we have enough weapons on the team to win games like this. Desmar stepped up big tonight. He didn’t play like a freshman. He’s been on our team for a while now, he knows what we are doing. He came out ready to go. That’s what we need in every game, from every one on our team, to try to fill the void that we lost with Afam.”

Jackson, who was 7 of 15 from the field, came off the bench and scored 14 points over his season average, with several other Cowboys picking up the scoring slack.

“I just came in and played; I knew my role,” Jackson said. “Coach told me to keep attacking the hoop; I'm good at attacking, so I just kept attacking and getting fouls.”

Djibril Thiam scored 16 points for the Cowboys, seven above his average and Waddell had his first double-double of his career with 13 points and 22 rebounds. Sophomore A.J. Davis, who started for Muojeke, scored 10 for Wyoming.

“Coach wanted me to be more aggressive,” Thiam said. “I have been working on attacking the basket in practice. We knew they had big men blocking shots. We just talked about going through them, instead of trying to go around them.”　

Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said his team grew up Wednesday night.

“We had so many players contribute. Our kids are a gritty bunch," Schroyer said. "When Utah went up by three, that was when I thought our kids really stuck together and fought. It was a huge win for us.”

Wyoming went into the game as one of the top shooting teams in the nation in free throws attempted and free throws made, but were just 23 off 44 from the line in the game. The Cowboys, however, were 7 of 9 in the final 46 seconds to secure the win.

Leading 35-32 at halftime, Wyoming built its lead to 46-34 with 14 minutes to play, but Utah used a 9-0 run to get back in the game. Carlon Brown, who scored a career-high 31 points, was the catalyst of the rally, scoring 22 points in the second half, including 11 of the team's 14 points in one stretch.

Waddell scored on a three-point play to put the Cowboys back up 69-67 with 46 seconds left. Utah turned the ball over three times in the final 30 seconds and Jackson hit four free throws late to secure the win.

“They came back and made that run, but we were able to come back,” Waddell said. “I think we changed our defensive scheme up a little bit to not let them get ball screens, and I think that threw them off a little bit. We made the plays that we needed to.”

Waddell's 22 rebounds came in a game in which he left the court for five minutes and went into the locker room afteer rolling his ankle. His 22 rebounds are the second most in A-A history (27 for Reggie Slater). Waddell has also now tied the MWC record with Jason Smith of CSU and Louis Amundson of UNLV.

“I’ve never had that many rebounds in any basketball game that I have played,” Waddell said with a big grin. “It feels good. I think it is also my first career double-double. I wished it wouldn’t just be my first at this point, but I tried to play hard and I really wanted to win this game. It feels good.”

Marshall Henderson scored 13 and Jay Watkins added 12 for the Utes, who had 19 turnovers, which resulted in 22 Wyoming points.

“You can't have 19 turnovers and miss 12 free throws and expect to win on the road,” Utah coach Jim Boylen said. “We have to get better; we have to keep growing.”

The Cowboys will face Air Force Saturday in Colorado Springs.