by staff–9 Feb ’17
In one of the most gutsy performance in Arena-Auditorium history senior guard Jason McManamen recorded a career-high 30 points in a career-high 57 minutes in the Pokes’ 102-100 quadruple overtime win over Fresno State on Wednesday evening. It was the second time in school history the Cowboys played four overtimes, UW defeated Air Force in four periods of extra time by a score of 83-76 Jan. 28, 2002.
Wyoming moves to 16-9 on the season and 6-6 in the Mountain West Conference. Fresno State is also 6-6 in conference play and falls to 14-10 overall.
“That was two good teams out there tonight,” UW head coach Allen Edwards said. “You have to give Fresno State credit, especially being on the road to withstand the blows and continue to keep fighting. I also want to commend our guys for staying the course and coming away with a very good victory, which this time of year is critical to help position ourselves for a strong finish in league play.”
The Cowboys held Fresno State without a field goal in the final 2:16 of the fourth overtime and in that stretch junior guard Jeremy Lieberman hit two midrange jumpers to lift the Cowboys to the win.
“There are times during a season when you tell your guys to do whatever it takes to get it done, and tonight our guys stuck with it,” Edwards said. “They never wilted under the pressure, never gave up on the situation.”
The Cowboys had chances to win the game in the first three overtimes, but Fresno State put up a fight at the end of each extra period. FSU’s Deshon Taylor hit three free throws with two seconds left in the first overtime and added two more free throw makes to tie the contest in the second overtime. His teammate Jahmel Taylor hit a three pointer to tie the contest at 90-90 in the third overtime with 44 seconds remaining.
McManamen’s 30 points was paced by seven three pointers, falling one shy of his career high of eight that he made at the Arena-Auditorium against Fresno State last season. His 57 minutes in the game are the second-most ever in a game for a Cowboy, one shy of Donta Richardson’s 58 minutes in a quadruple-overtime game against Air Force.
Junior forward Hayden Dalton added 21 points and 20 rebounds for the first 20-20 game since Reggie Slater recorded 29 points and 27 rebounds against Troy on Dec. 14, 1991. Junior forward Alan Herndon tied a career-high with 17 points including a career-high four three pointers. Sophomore guard Justin James added 10 points and senior Morris Marshall added six points all of which came from the free throw line in overtime.
The Cowboy defense held Fresno State to 36 percent from the field. It marked the 13th time this season UW has held an opponent to under 40 percent from the field. The Pokes’ 60 rebounds ties for the third-most rebounds by any team at Arena-Auditorium, and is Wyoming’s single-game high in the Mountain West era.
“One of the keys was to rebound well tonight, and I have not been around a game where we got 60 rebounds,” Edwards said. “It was a tremendous effort and H.D. (Hayden Dalton) had 20 or them by himself. And that trickled, Al (Herndon) had eight. Justin James had nine. Jordan (Naughton) had six. As we move forward, we’re going to continue to need that kind of effort.”
The Cowboys return to action on Saturday heading to Utah State to take on the Aggies for a 7 p.m. start in Logan, Utah.
