Pokes Get Hot From Deep, Bury Bulldogs, 92-82

LARAMIE -- No one in the Mountain West guards the three-point line like Fresno State.

Entering Tuesday night's meeting with the Cowboys, the visitors were allowing opponents to connect on just 28.9% of those outside looks. How good have the Bulldogs been when it comes to this category? Only conference heavyweights New Mexico and Utah State have reached double figures against them.

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That impressive stat changed in a big way inside the Arena-Auditorium.

Freshman Naz Meyer led the way with 22 points and drained three of Wyoming's season-high 15 triples in a 92-82 victory. Damarion Dennis, Khaden Bennett and Uriyah Rojas also capped their night with three makes from deep, helping the Cowboys snap a three-game losing skid.

There was some additional motivation in this one, too.

Head coach Sundance Wicks, though not getting into details, said his young son recently had an emergency situation. He admitted to "running on E," emotionally.

His players weren't.

"I had a lot of guys text me yesterday about what went down with Skywalker, and how close of a call that was with him," Wicks said on his postgame show, adding a big perspective shift comes when he's "close to not making it." "Our team was like, 'we're going to get your back, coach.'

"... Our guys showed up tonight. We had five guys in double figures. Five guys. They showed up, offensively."

That wasn't the case three days ago when Colorado State methodically erased a double-digit second-half lead in what would turn out to be an 11-point victory in Fort Collins. The Cowboys missed 14 of their final 15 shots and allowed the Rams to live at the free-throw line.

Without the services of forward Gavin Gores, Wyoming's Border War rival exploited a distinct size advantage on the block.

Wicks called that closing effort "soft and selfish."

Just when it appeared Wyoming was going to get carved up in the paint once again --  Wilson Jacques had 13 points in the first 11-plus minutes -- it instead utilized some gang mentality down low to limit the 7-footer to just 2-of-6 shooting in the second frame.

After jumping out to a 22-10 advantage in the paint, Fresno State lost that battle 28-20 over the final 25-plus minutes. The Bulldogs also missed 10 layups.

Gores, who is still dealing with a left-hand injury and a broken nose, was again unavailable against the Bulldogs.

It didn't matter.

"I went into halftime and I said, 'fight. Play harder,'" Wicks said. "I mean, sometimes this isn't rocket science, right? ... It's a mentality. It's a mindset shift. We don't sit there and have to create some sort of brand-new defense, you just got to do what you do -- better. And we did it a little bit better in the second half, although, you know, Wilson Jacques at halftime looked like he was about to set the world record for double-doubles."

The big man did accomplish that for the seventh time this season, finishing with a team-high 19 points and 12 boards.

The Bulldogs were without leading scorer Jake Heidbreder (17.5 ppg) and David Douglas Jr. (7.2) in Laramie.

Cowboy guards Dennis and Bennett both finished with 17 points. The latter added a team-best eight rebounds. Rojas netted 11 and Leland Walker added 10. Wyoming shot 54% from the field, including nearly 46% from beyond the arc.

Fresno State's DeShawn Gory had 17 points and Zaon Collins and Cameron Faas both chipped in with 11 as the Bulldogs fell to 12-14 overall and 6-9 in conference play. The Cowboys picked up their fifth Mountain West victory and are now 14-12.

Wyoming will hit the road for back-to-back games, beginning in Phoenix against Grand Canyon on Saturday night. Tipoff is slated for 6 p.m. A date with Boise State is set for next Tuesday.

"At the end of the day, you're just fighting to get hot late, right?" Wicks said. "We got five guaranteed games left in conference and one bonus game. I just kept telling our guys, the teams at the end of the year that just say, 'Let's get one more together, let's get one more together,' they just want to play one more together and want to be around each other one more time."