Cowboys Pull Away From Owls

A 12-0 run early in the second half helped the Wyoming Cowboys overcome a sluggish first half and defeat the Kennesaw State Owls 68-55 Tuesday night at the Arena-Auditorium.

Desmar Jackson led four Cowboys (7-7) in double figures with 21 points and a career-high 6 steals.  Jackson has scored more than 20 points in three straight games.  Djibril Thiam added 14 points and 7 rebounds, while Amath M'Baye and Francisco Cruz added 12 points apiece.

The Owls (2-10) were up 20-12 midway through the first half before Wyoming took a 26-23 lead thanks to a 14-to-3 run keyed by nine points from Jackson.  Even Cowboys Head Coach Heath Schroyer was happy that Jackson stayed assertive:

"The good thing about Des is he only knows how to play one way, and that's being very aggressive.  I thought Des was really good.  We went to man when he got his second foul.  I thought that was a really good change of pace, but then when we put him back in we really wanted to try to protect him because we knew we needed him on offense because we were so stagnant.  I thought he did a really nice job of playing with two fouls in the first half, which was probably one of the biggest differences in the game."

However, Kennesaw State responded with six points in the final 1:09 for a 33-31 lead at halftime.

After the Owls pulled within three at 50-47 with 6:48 left, UW got a big three from Cruz to go back up by six and out-scored Kennesaw State 13-8 the rest of the way.

UW let the Owls hang around thanks to paltry free throw shooting.  The Cowboys, who led the MWC coming into the game at 71.3 percent from the line, struggled all game long and were 16-32 from the line for 50 percent.

A big plus was the Pokes defense in the second half, as they held Kennesaw State to 22 percent shooting in the half and 37 percent for the game.  Wyoming also forced 16 Owl turnovers and converted those to 21 points.

Kennesaw State was led by Markeith Cummings with 14 points.  Kelvin McConnell chipped in 10.

The Cowboys finish out non-conference play Friday at Houston Baptist.  UW is still in search of their first road win this season.  The game starts at 1 pm, Mountain time.  You can tune-in to coverage of the game on KCGY (FM 95.1) starting at 12:30 Friday afternoon.