The Wyoming Cowboys used their nationally ranked defense to hold visiting Colorado State to only 15 first half points, and the Pokes eased to a 59-48 home win over the Rams to help them maintain a first place tie with San Diego State in the Mountain West Conference.
Wyoming raced out of the gate and held an early 13-3 lead thanks to a quick 5 points from Jeremy Lieberman. Colorado State could never really recover and despite playing an even half with the Pokes over the last 20 minutes, the Rams could not close the initial gap.
Larry Nance Jr. led the Cowboys with 19 points and 10 rebounds while frontcourt teammate Derek Cooke Jr. contributed 12 points and 11 boards. Riley Grabau added 10 points on a perfect shooting night that included 2-2 from downtown and 4-4 from the charity stripe.
The Pokes overcame poor scoring efforts from guards Josh Adams (1-8 for 2 points) and Charles Hankerson (0-4, zero points) to grab their eighth Mountain West win against only two losses.
Colorado State, which averages 74 points per game, could not find the mark early and suffered through a 30% shooting night including an abysmal 3-25 effort from behind the arc. Aside from J.J Avila’s 18 points and Stanton Kidd’s 15, no other Ram player scored more than 5, which was their recipe for disaster in the Laramie elevation.
The win keeps Wyoming in the aforementioned tie with SDSU. The two teams will square off in SoCal on February 11 for what will most likely be the number one seed in the MWC Tournament.
Colorado State drops to 6-4 in conference play. The Rams host UNLV and New Mexico over the next 7 days and they will need to win both to keep pace with the Pokes and Aztecs.