This time it was turnovers and free-throw shooting that resuled in a Wyoming loss.
The Cowboys committed 23 turnovers and and missed eight free throws in a 70-68 loss at home to New Mexico Saturday.
Twelve of the turnovers came in the second half, and UW sophomore point guard JayDee Luster missed all five of his free-throw attempts — four in the second half.
“We kind of shot ourselves in the foot down the stretch,” coach Heath Schroyer said.
Yes, the Cowboys did.
Yet it’s amazing that Schroyer remains so positive about this team and this season. Granted, you can’t just give up on a team with just one senior. Maybe inside Schroyer’s insides are torn up, but he’s pretty calm and collected on the outside.
UW outrebounded New Mexico and made seven 3-pointers.
The Lobos got an unexpected career-high 18 points from sophomore forward A.J. Hardeman, which was 11 more than his season average. They needed all of them as they shot just 3 of 19 from 3-point range.
UW went 0-2 this week with losses by a combined five points.
I guess you can say this team is getting better as it’s playing close games despite losing. That’s Schroyer’s take on it (see my column in Sunday’s paper).
We will see how much better this team is getting when it plays at No. 18 BYU Wednesday.
On a couple of players notes:
–It was nice to see true freshman point guard Desmar Jackson play well with a career-high four steals to go with a MWC high eight points.
–Seems like sophomore guard A.J. Davis is back in Schroyer’s dog house for too many turnovers and not rebounding well. He played just five minutes today.
More on that in the follow-up story for Monday’s paper.
