I love this quote by Utah coach Jim Boylen: “You can’t have 19 turnovers and miss 12 free throws and expect to win on the road.”

He’s right, but in Wyoming’s case it can miss 21 free throws and make only 2 of 9 3-pointers and win at home.

The Cowboys won a hard-fought and thrilling 75-69 game over Utah in front of 4,828 fans at the Arena-Auditorium Wednesday night in their first game without leading scorer, sophomore forward Afam Muojeke.

Muojeke had surgery on his left knee Wednesday morning to repair a ruptured patellar tendon, an injury that ended his season last Wednesday at BYU. Coach Heath Schroyer said the surgery went well.

But back to the game.

Sophomore center Adam Waddell gave his best Willis Reed imitation as he left the game in the second half with a twisted ankle, but came limping out of the tunnel a bit later and finished with 13 points and 22 rebounds. The rebounds tied a Mountain West Conference single-game record and was the second-most in A-A history.

UW had 40 rebounds in the game, total.

“I couldn’t even tell you, (the ball) just came to me,” said Waddell on his rebounding effort.

Added junior forward Djibril Thiam to Waddell: “You were hogging them.”

True freshman Desmar Jackson added a team-high 21 points in just 20 minutes, and played most of the second half with four fouls.

“He didn’t play like a freshman tonight, he played like he’s been on the team for a while,” Waddell said.

Everyone played well for the Cowboys, even though they were 23 of 44 from the line. But they made 9 of their last 13 down the stretch.

“It shows we can make the plays and we’re not going to stop just fighting just because we miss free throws,” Waddell said. “We made enough stops on the defensive end to win the game.”

UW ended the game on an 11-2 run in the final 3:06.

As far as the free-throw struggles, where UW has missed 50 free throws over its last four games?

“We’re going to continue to shoot free throws in practice, and that’s all we can do is just practice, practice, practice free throws.”

I think saying “practice” three times will be the key to snapping the Cowboys out of their slump.

If UW plays like this the rest of the season it won’t win all of its games but it will have a chance to win a few. And even though the free-throw shooting had the fans pulling their hair out, I think the effort and execution is something many will appreciate.

See my column in Thursday’s paper for more on that.

Heading into the game UW was 2-11 when scoring less than 80 points.

Make that 3-11 now.

“Losing Afam was tough, but I think we all know we have enough weapons on the team to win games like this,” Waddell said.

1. Who steps up?: What Wyoming players elevate their game now that sophomore forward and leading scorer Afam Muojeke is out for the season? And not just at the position Muojeke plays, but among the regular guys in the starting lineup. This has to be a group effort by the Cowboys. Not just in this game, but the rest of the season.

2. Speed up the game: Utah coach Jim Boylen said his team has struggled against teams that play fast and push the tempo. UW does that and will need to do that in this game. It needs to force turnovers, get some easy baskets in transition and also try and offset some of Utah’s size. UW does not match up well with some of Utah’s big men like 7-3 David Foster, 7-footer Jason Washburn and 6-11 Kim Tillie.

3. Get to the line: UW is second in the nation in free throws made (409), but it has missed 29 free throws during its three-game losing streak. The Cowboys need to get to the line and make their free throws. In this game it could be even more vital because Utah leads the Mountain West Conference in 3-point shooting defense (29.6 percent) and UW shoots only 27.1 percent from behind the arc.

4. Guard shooters: Utah true freshman Marshall Henderson can light it up from 3-point range. He scored 22 points in Utah’s win over Air Force last Saturday. The Cowboys can’t let Henderson or any of the other Utah shooters get hot, which then opens things up inside. UW must try and make Utah as one-dimensional as it can. Or at very least, don’t give the perimeter shooters a lot of open looks.

5. Fight or flee: From here on out it will be interesting to see how the Cowboys play. For good or bad the dynamic of any basketball team changes when its leading scorer is out. Will UW rise to the occasion, come together as a team and play good basketball the rest of the season — win or lose? Or will it go in the tank and chalk this season up as lost? It could go either way right now.

Still plan on live blogging from the game tonight, which is not televised. Join me at about 6:30 p.m. at http://wyomingcowboysblog.com/2010/01/25/wyoming-vs-utah-live-blog-2/