LARAMIE, Wyo.—Many of the Wyoming newcomers saw Colorado State end the Cowboys season in March in the Mountain West Conference tournament, even if they didn?t play in the game.
After Wyoming jumped out to a big first-half lead on Saturday, those thoughts quickly returned as the Rams cut the Cowboy lead to two with 3:50 to play. But the Cowboys responded with seven unanswered points and held on to beat their longtime rivals 83-74 in the 210th game between the two schools.
“I was just thinking about the Mountain West Conference Tournament last year, losing to them,” said Wyoming’s Afam Muojeke, who watched last year?s tournament game from the bench as a redshirt. “It was tough, especially for the seniors that I was playing with…I wanted to get the win.”
Muojeke scored a game-high 25 points and the Cowboys (2-3 Mountain West, 13-6) led 45-31 at halftime. But the Rams battled back and cut the Wyoming lead to 58-56 with 8:22 to play and 69-67 with 3:50 remaining. Wyoming used a 7-0 run and then the Cowboys hit 6-of-9 from the free-throw line in the final 1:18 to pull away.
“It was great win for us,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said. “Any win in this league is a good win.”
Jesse Carr led the Rams (2-4, 7-13) with a career-high 21 points, while Travis Franklin scored 17 and Andy Ogide 13.
“There is no moral victory here,” Colorado State coach Tim Miles said. “We got it down to a couple, but we just made some bad decisions and took a bad shot about three different times, and that is not good enough to win.”
Tyson Johnson scored 19 for Wyoming, while Brandon Ewing finished with 18 points and Sean Ogirri scored 11, as the Cowboys shot 56 percent from the field, including 63 percent in the first half.
