by staff–8 Nov ’15
After trailing by nine with five minutes left, the University of Wyoming men’s basketball team rallied to take Fort Lewis to overtime, but fell, 77-69, in the extra period in an exhibition contest on Saturday night in the Arena-Auditorium. Senior guard Josh Adams paced the Pokes with 18 points, but did not play the majority of the second half.
“I thought Fort Lewis really shot the ball well in critical situations and they have six seniors that have won a lot of games,” UW head coach Larry Shyatt said. “On the other side, I really have to complement our crowd. I feel as bad as bad can be that we didn’t play a little bit better because we had a lot of students here, when really that’s the backbone of our program here.”
The Cowboys raised their 2015 Mountain West championship banner prior to the game, but it was the Skyhawks flying high after that. Fort Lewis jumped out to a nine-point lead in the first six minutes. Wyoming would battle back to take a 29-28 advantage into halftime, but the Skyhawks once again went back up by nine with less than five minutes remaining in the game. That’s when junior guard Morris Marshall hit a three to spark a 13-4 run down the stretch. Freshman forward Jordan Naughton capped the spurt with two free with 26 seconds left to send the contest to overtime.
In the extra period it was all Skyhawks, though, as Fort Lewis outscored the Cowboys, 12-4, for the win. Wyoming went 0-of-6 from the field in overtime and shot just 33 percent (17-of-52) for the game. The Pokes hit 21 percent (6-of-28) beyond the arc compared to 40 percent (24-of-60) and 32 percent (12-of-37), respectively, for Fort Lewis. Wyoming was outrebounded 47-33 and trailed 17-10 in assists, but outscored Fort Lewis 20-8 in the paint and had a 9-5 advantage in steals.
Adams’ 18 points came on 5-of-12 from the field and 8-of-10 at the free-throw line, as he added four rebounds and three steals in 23 minutes. Redshirt sophomore guard Trey Washington III added 10 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals. Sophomore forward Hayden Dalton led Wyoming on the boards with five rebounds to go with eight points and two assists. Overall, 10 different Cowboys scored and six had at least one assist. Nine Cowboys played at least 20 minutes.
“We did get some looks at some people that stepped on to the floor for the first time,” Shyatt said. “I thought our first group was a little bit nervous, getting down 12-3 in the beginning. Then, from that point on, not a lot of surprises. We didn’t shoot the ball well. Maybe it was Fort Lewis’ defense or maybe because of a lot of wide open shots.”
Wyoming opens the regular season by hosting Bristol University (Calif.) on Nov. 13 in the Arena-Auditorium.
