Cowboys, Jackrabbits Meet Tonight inside Sanford Pentagon

LARAMIE -- The Wyoming Cowboys head to Sioux Falls, S.D. for a neutral site contest against South Dakota State on Monday evening inside the Sanford Pentagon. Tipoff is slated for 6 p.m. The game marks the final non-conference matchup of the season for the Brown and Gold.

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Fans can listen to the contest, as well as follow stats on GoWyo.com. Fans can watch via a stream on Midco Sports Plus. The game will be broadcast live on radio over the 26 affiliate stations of the Cowboy Sports Network with Keith Kelley on the call and Kevin McKinney on color.

Wyoming is still in search of its fist win this season away from the Arena-Auditorium.

About The Teams
Wyoming heads into the contest with a 8-2 overall record after downing South Dakota 106-79 on Tuesday. The Pokes lead the MW and rank No. 36 in the nation averaging 88 points per game. UW has scored 90 or more points in three off the last four games. Wyoming is shooting 49.2 percent from the field to rank third in the conference.

UW holds opponents to 41.4 percent from the field for third in the MW. One of the top rebounding teams in the nation, the Pokes grab 41 per game to rank first in the conference and 46 in the nation.

"This is a cool matchup for us on a neutral site against a really good opponent that's always going to be in the hunt to win the Summit League every single year," Wyoming head coach Sundance Wicks said. "They are one of the best defensive rebounding teams in the country, which tries to negate some of our offensive rebounding prowess that we have right now. Then, they defend the three-point line well.

"So they do two things extremely well that could probably, you know, stymie us a little bit, which is not let us get offensive boards and defend the three-point line."

The Jackrabbits are 7-5 on the season and have won three of their last four games after downing Dakota Wesleyan by a score of 94-62 on Friday. SDSU averages 74.3 points per game and holds opponents to 65.9 per night. South Dakota State shoots 45.7 percent from the field with opponents shooting 40.2 percent.

An excellent rebounding team, South Dakota State grabs 39.3 per game and is +8 on the boards this season.

About The Players
Wyoming is led in scoring by Leland Walker at 14.1 points per game. He also adds four rebounds per game and four assists per night. Khaden Bennett adds 10.4 points per contest and leads the team with 4.7 rebounds per game. He also leads the team with 17 steals.

Nasir (Naz) Meyer adds 12.3 points per game and 4.6 rebounds per night to rank second on the team in both. Meyer is shooting 51 percent from the field this season.

South Dakota State is led in scoring by Jaden Jackson at 11.9 per game. He also adds 4.4 rebounds per game and leads the team with 16 steals. Joe Sayler adds 11.8 points per game and leads the team with 31 assists. Damon Wilkinson adds 11.8 points per night and leads the team with 6.6 rebounds per game. He is shooting 60.5 percent from the field.

"I'm looking forward to a little bit of a chess match here. They will be big. They will be physical, as they play two bigs," Wicks said. "So, anybody that's into that two-big lineup where they play 6-foot-8, 6-foot-9 and then 6-foot-10 with them, they're going to play (Alec) Squires, (Damon) Wilkinson and Matthew Mors. Those are some big guys and some big lineups. It's going to give us a Mountain West type look, in my opinion. That's why we scheduled this game right before league play."

About The Series
The Cowboys are 5-1 all-time against the Jackrabbits and are 2-0 all-time against South Dakota State on neutral floors. UW won the last contest on December 20, 2023 with a 78-65 win in El Paso at the Sun Bowl Invitational.

Extra Point

The leading scorer in SDSU history has strong Wyoming ties. Mike Daum, who is a 6-foot-9 power forward who played in Brookings from 2015-19, netted 3,067 points in a Jackrabbit uniform. His mother, Michele Hoppes, is the third-leading scorer in Wyoming Cowgirl history with 1,838, now behind only Allyson Fertig (1,860) and former teammate Christine Fairless (1,933). Hoppes laced them up in Laramie from 1983-87. Her son, who was a three-time Summit League Player of the Year, went undrafted and is currently playing for the Shinshu Brave Warriors of the Japanese B League. Daum also owns the school record for offensive and defensive rebounds, field goals, three-point field goals, points per game, field goal attempts, free throws, attempts and percentage.

Up Next
The Cowboys open conference play on Saturday, December 20 hosting Grand Canyon for the first meeting between the two schools as conference foes. The contest is set for a 2 p.m. start on the Mountain West Network.