Wyoming Cowboy Defense Clamps Down on Utah Valley, 74-41

The Wyoming Cowboy basketball team led the entire game in a dominating defensive performance to defeat Utah Valley, 74-41, on Wednesday night in the Arena Auditorium. Leonard Washington posted 16 points and 9 rebounds as UW held the Wolverines to 30.8 percent shooting.

"Our identity is beginning to be formed," said Head Coach Larry Shyatt after the game. "We came out tonight and I thought played well defensively, and played hard from start to finish. That is a credit to each of our guys. I'm very proud of our team."

Both teams played tight in the first ten minutes of play, and the Cowboys had just a 13-10 advantage before they took over the rest of the half. UW went on a 25-3 run over the course of eight minutes with solid defense that absolutely frustrated the Wolverines. The Pokes shot 54.8 percent (17-31) to go into halftime with a 42-17 lead.

Wyoming did not let down in the second half as they built the lead to 37 points with 7:06 left. Significant contributions came from the bench, including six minutes from Afam Muojeke in which he put up a quick 8 points.

It's not that easy to maintain your level of play when you have a lead at halftime like we had tonight. I've been with good teams who have gotten complacent in the second half of games, but I thought our guys played hard right through to the end of the game.
-Head Coach Larry Shyatt

UW (7-1) shot 48.1 percent (26-54) from the field, 25.0 percent (6-24) from beyond the arc and 80.0 percent (16-20) from the free throw line. Pako Cruz put up 11 points, Derrious Gilmore had 9 and Adam Waddell grabbed 8 boards to go with his 8 points. Wyoming had 13 assists, including five from JayDee Luster, to go with just 8 turnovers while grabbing 46 rebounds.

Utah Valley (4-4) hit only 16-of-52 shots from the field for a 30.8 shooting percentage, including 5.6 percent (1-18) from beyond the arc and 57.1 percent (8-14) from the charity stripe. They were led by Alfonzo Hubbard with 10 points and 6 rebounds. Ten Wolverine turnovers were turned into 17 Cowboy points.

The next game for UW will be on Saturday, Dec. 3rd when they host Bradley at 8 p.m. in the Arena Auditorium. The game will air on KCGY-FM (95.1) with the pregame show starting at 7:30 p.m.

Coach Shyatt, that's one thing that makes him a really good coach, he's always striving for more. He always feels like you could be better and I think the guys on the team have really bought into that. We believe that we're a work in progress.
-JayDee Luster