Pokes Will Face DuSell’s ‘Dogs in Vegas, but There’s Work to Do

LARAMIE -- There will be no drama when it comes to who the Cowboys will face in the opening round of next week's Mountain West Tournament.

It's Fresno State, a team Wyoming will also play Saturday in the regular-season finale. The two will again hook up next Wednesday inside the Thomas and Mack Center in the 8-9 game. Tipoff is slated for noon Mountain Time.

The winner gets the top seed the following afternoon.

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Don't look too far ahead, though. Mason Walters certainly isn't.

The 6-foot-9 forward, who will play his final home game tonight against Air Force, said his team is still in search of that "complete game."

Aside from the nine triples Kellan Boylan stroked the first time these teams met in Colorado Springs, Which head coach Jeff Linder said was simply part of the game plan, it was as close to thorough as this Wyoming squad has performed all season in that 83-72 victory.

Can they do it again?

"We're trending in the right direction," Walters said just minutes after netting 12 points in a 70-62 loss last Saturday at Colorado State. "I mean, looking at the Boise game compared to these past two games, I feel like, collectively, we can be proud of the effort we put forth. The Boise game, we couldn't say that. So, I think we're heading in the right direction. We've got to find a way to just get over the hump, you know? Find a way to just beat Air Force and then go from there."

After that embarrassing 20-point setback against the Broncos last week in Laramie, one where the Cowboys not only gave up 92 points but were outrebounded 30-6 in the second half, the defense has shown up, allowing UNLV and CSU to shoot around 41% from the field.

It's Wyoming's offense, however, that has struggled to get things going, especially from beyond the arc.

In those two narrow losses, the Pokes are just 11-of-40 in that category. Two of their top outside threats -- Sam Griffin and Akuel Kot -- have combined to go 4-of-20 from deep. Brendan Wenzel has been the most consistent, sinking 6-of-11 attempts.

Wyoming only connected on roughly 37% of their shots in general.

Like he has all season, Linder is urging his team to keep firing away, if the selection is right.

Cam Manyawu is confident those will eventually fall.

"We could've done a little more, just some little things we have to clean up, but we're close," the 6-foot-9 freshman forward said in Fort Collins. "We're close. We're really close."

The Cowboys hit 56% of their shots and finished 12-of-19 from behind the three-point line in their first meeting with the Falcons. They won the rebounding battle by nine. They forced the same number of turnovers and quickly turned those into 14 points.

Wenzel scored a team-high 25 points. Walters chipped in with 22 and Kot added 20. Griffin, who was battling an illness, hit just two threes and finished with a season-low six points. Those were big ones, though, extending a late second-half lead.

Just seven players saw the court that night inside Clune Arena. Linder and Co. now have the services of Kenny Foster, who returned from a torn Achilles tendon after just four months, and fellow guard Kobe Newton, who has battled a staph infection in his ankle, missing the previous 11 games before last Saturday's Border War tilt.

"We can't overlook anybody or look at the tournament," Walters said, "it's next game up, starting Tuesday against Air Force."

Linder agrees.

"This team has been really good about not getting too high, they don't get too low, they stay pretty even keeled," he said. "So, if we can just continue that, I mean, I think what we've seen over the course of conference play is that we can play with anybody. Now, can you find ways to just get over that hump? Obviously, when you get on to a neutral court in Vegas, I think we're going to have a chance to beat anybody.

Wyoming and Air Force will meet tonight inside the Arena-Auditorium where five players -- Walters, Kot, Griffin, Foster and Wenzel -- will be honored on senior night. Tipoff is slated for 6:30 p.m. and the game will be streamed on the Mountain West Network.