by staff–10 Dec ’15
The University of Wyoming men’s basketball team lost a 68-58 game to Southern on Thursday night in the Arena-Auditorium. The Cowboys (5-4) trailed by 10 with four minutes left, before the Jaguars (6-2) crafted a 7-0 run to take control and hand Wyoming its first back-to-back nonconference home losses under sixth-year head coach Larry Shyatt.
“I take total responsibility,” Shyatt said. “I’m the guy who is responsible for preparing them. The guys in blue [Southern] out-hustled the guys in gold [Wyoming] tonight. To me it was men playing against young ones tonight.”
The Pokes never led, but trailed by just one at halftime, 27-26. Southern would come out of the break with an 8-0 spurt to go up by nine and extended the lead to as many as 12 points midway through the half. Wyoming cut the advantage to seven with eight minutes left, but that would be as close as the Cowboys would get, as the Jaguars ballooned the lead back to 17 down the stretch.
Wyoming shot just 35 percent (17-of-48) from the field and the same percentage (10-of-29) beyond the arc, while Southern hit 44 percent (27-of-62) and 45 percent (5-of-11), respectively. The Pokes’ 17 field goals were a season low. The game was won inside, though, as the Jaguars earned a 45-25 advantage on the boards, including 14-3 on the offensive glass, en route to a 30-10 lead in points in the paint and 18-5 in second-chance points. It was UW’s worst rebounding margin this season, while SU’s points in the paint and 17 points off turnovers were season highs for a Cowboy foe.
“You aren’t as concerned when someone just beats you, but you are really concerned when you lose a game and I thought we lost this game tonight,” Shyatt said. “We were pounded on the glass — 45 rebounds to 25 rebounds. We gave up 30 points in the paint. We looked lethargic. I thought we were a tad selfish at times when we tried to put the ball on the floor when we knew how they were going to defend us.”
Senior guard Josh Adams posted 25 points, five assists and four rebounds for his sixth 20-point effort this season. He was the only Cowboy to reach double-figure points, though. His five assists move him to ninth all-time in UW history, while his one steal made his ninth as well. Junior guard Jason McManamen had nine points, while sophomore forward Alan Herndon led the Pokes on the glass with seven rebounds.
Wyoming returns to action at New Mexico State on Sunday at 7 p.m. MT.
