FORT COLLINS, Colo.—Brandon Ewing doesn’t concern himself with numbers. He lets relatives take care of that while he concentrates on winning games.
“My mom and grandmother are real big with the numbers,” said Ewing, a senior guard for Wyoming. “They can keep up with them. … I just want to win.”
On Wednesday, Ewing had the luxury of enjoying both.
He moved up a notch on Wyoming’s all-time scoring list as the Cowboys beat longtime rival Colorado State 82-79.
Ewing scored four of his 21 points in the final 54 seconds.
“Brandon is a special player, and I’ve sensed it more the last month is that all Brandon wants to do is win,” Wyoming coach Heath Schroyer said. “He will probably get records, but winning means more.”
Wednesday’s game gave Ewing 2,058 points in his career and moved him past Flynn Robinson (2,049) for second place on Wyoming’s all-time scoring list. He trails Fennis Dembo (2,311) by 253 points for the school’s top spot.
“I didn’t even look up at the scoreboard to see the numbers,” said Ewing, the Mountain West Conference’s leading scorer at just over 18 points a game. “My focus is and always will be to get a W.”
Ewing is within 133 points of becoming the league’s all-time career scorer. Former San Diego State guard Brandon Heath had 2,189 points.
Adam Muojeke added 19 points for Wyoming (17-10, 6-7 Mountain West), which has won three straight.
Andy Ogide led Colorado State (9-19, 4-10) with 19 points. Andre McFarland had 16 points, and Marcus Walker and Willis Gardner had 15 each for the Rams.
Gardner missed a free throw that would have tied the game at 80 with 14 seconds to go.
“I just missed it,” Gardner said. “I missed it.”
Gardner is the team’s best free-throw shooter but was just 5-for-10 from the free-throw line for the game.
Ewing sealed the win with two free throws with nine seconds left.
Walker, who struggled through a 6-for-18 shooting night, hit a jumper to tie the game for the final time, 73-73, with 3:06 left. Ewing broke the tie with a short jumper and free throw to make it 76-73 with 2:12 to go.
The Cowboys held the lead the rest of the way. Gardner made only 1-of-2 free throws and Ewing put Wyoming ahead 78-74 with a spinning layup with 54 seconds left.
Walker cut it to 78-77 with a 3-pointer only to watch Muojeke bury two free throws with 20 seconds to give the Cowboys an 80-77 cushion.
Gardner made a layup but missed the game-tying free throw with 14 seconds left.
“We couldn’t have wanted it any better,” Colorado State coach Tim Miles said. “Get in position to tie, get to the line, but we didn’t make it.”
Ewing sealed the win with two free throws.
