Poor start haunts Cowboys again

by Richard Anderson
Wyoming Sports.org

Another slow start spelled doom for the Wyoming Cowboys.

Against No. 16 BYU, the Cowboys could afford a bad start, but that's exactly what happened in the Cougars 85-63 win Saturday at the Arena-auditorium.

Wyoming missed its first eight shots from the field and trailed 10-0 before finally getting on the board.

“I think a lot of it has to do with BYU,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said of his team's slow start. “They did a nice job defensively. When you struggle to score, it affects other things.”

Freshman Tyler Haws and Jimmer Fredette both scored 22 points for the Cougars (10-2 MWC, 25-3), who led comfortably the entire way to stay within one-half game of first-place New Mexico. After Wyoming cut a 14-point lead to eight with 10 minutes left, BYU regained control down the stretch.

“I thought they (Wyoming) did a good job of controlling the tempo,” BYU coach Dave Rose said. “We did a much better job in the second half of playing possession to possession. We did a good job offensively and a good job of guarding them … down the stretch we did a really good job of finishing it off.”

Freshman Desmar Jackson scored a career-high 26 points for Wyoming (2-11, 9-18), which has now lost seven straight games and 10 of its last 11.

BYU led 40-28 at halftime, only to see Wyoming cut the lead to eight with 10 minutes remaining. But Jonathan Tavernari's 3-pointer and Charles Abouo's dunk ignited a 16-3 run and the Cougars cruised from there.

“Hats off to BYU, they are very good and very talented,” Schroyer said. “They really stretch you and they can beat you in many ways. We had a chance when we cut it to eight, but like a really good team, they rallied and went on a 5-0 run and that was it.”

Haws, who scored a career-high 24 points in the first meeting with Wyoming, was just 6 of 15 from the field, but a perfect 10 of 10 from the free-throw line. He also grabbed eight rebounds. Fredette scored 15 of his points in the second half.

“Tyler was terrific; he was on attack,” Rose said. “This was a game where they really run at Jimmer and Jimmer did a great job of finding the open guy and making the right decision with the ball.”

Tavernari scored 17 points for the Cougars and Jackson Emery added 10. BYU shot just 43 percent from the field (29-of-66), but was 20 of 24 from the free-throw line.

Djibril Thiam scored 12 points for Wyoming. which ended up shooting 41 percent from the field (22-of-54), but gave up 19 points off of 12 turnovers.

The Cowboys return to action next Saturday at Utah.