Wyoming Drops Tough Game to SMU

Junior forward Larry Nance Jr. notched 16 points and a season-high 13 rebounds to help the University of Wyoming men's basketball team lead SMU late on Friday night in the Arena-Auditorium, but the Mustangs closed the game with an 11-2 run to earn a hard-fought 62-54 win over the Cowboys. The loss snapped a 27-game non-conference home winning streak for the Pokes (7-4) during the regular season, as the Mustangs collected their 10th win on the year.

"As good a job as we did in the paint the first half, our defense was really, really porous in the second half," UW head coach Larry Shyatt said. "It was a combination of our interior players not quite having the fight that we had in the first half combined with a couple missed assignments. But we still had an opportunity to win that ball game with three and half minutes to play, and really just didn't execute what we wanted to get done on the offensive end."

Wyoming had one of its worst statistical nights of the season. The Pokes shot a season-low 34 percent (16-of-46) from the field and hit just 26 percent (6-of-23) beyond the arc. UW's 23 three attempts were a season high, while its 16 field goals were a season low. SMU connected on 45 percent (25-of-55) from the field but just two of its seven three-point attempts. The Mustangs earned a season-high 34 points in the paint for a UW opponent and outrebounded the Pokes 39-29.