Well, another tough loss for the Cowboys as they fall 85-76.

As I say in my column in Thursday’s paper, the extremes from this team need to stop. The Pokes are either extremely good or extremely bad and it’s not good enough to do both and win with any consistency.

Yes, Akron was good and yes they are more experienced and veteran than UW. But the Cowboys were up seven with 10:21 to play. They must learn to finish games and be more consistent. Easy for me to say, but if not wins will be hard to come by in conference play.

No JayDee Luster with a twisted ankle, and that didn’t help UW’s cause. True freshman Desmar Jackson had nine points and four assists, but also five turnovers. Still, UW could have and should have won even without Luster.

Sophomore guard A.J. Davis was impressive with 18 points, including 15 in the second half and he sparked a second-half rally.

There were 52 fouls called, and UW made just 1 of 9 3-pointers. Akron made 9 of 16 and outscored UW 26-13 in second-chance points.

Officiating was iffy at times, but I’m not going down that road.

One last dress rehearsal before conference play next week. Division II Adams State comes to the A-A Saturday at 2 p.m. UW will go after its 300th win in this building.

It should have been in this game with Akron.

See Thursday’s paper for more on the game.

1. Turnovers: See Wednesday’s paper for more on this, but in a nutshell UW must force more turnovers and turn it over less. You can say that for any team in any game, but this certainly holds true for the Cowboys.

2. Little guys, big roles: UW sophomore point guard JayDee Luster and Akron sophomore point guard Anthony “Humpty” Hitchens are both listed at 5-9. Rarely do point guards this small get to play against each other at the Division I level. Both are good players and this match up should be fun to watch. Whoever plays the best will likely be on the winning team.

3. Post presence: Coach Heath Schroyer told me that Akron is physical and good in the post. How UW post players Boubacar Sylla, Adam Waddell, Djibril Thiam and Amath M’Baye play on both ends of the court will be crucial for the Cowboys.

4. Play a complete game: Playing well in spurts isn’t good enough for this UW team to win a lot of games. To expect perfection for an entire game is unrealistic, but lulls for five to 10 minutes at a time will mean another loss for the Cowboys against a team like Akron.

5. Speed up the tempo: As far as the team’s health goes, UW is in as good of shape as it was since the first few games. That means the Cowboys should try and up the tempo of the game both offensively and defensively to take advantage of the 7,220 feet of altitude and get Akron out of its comfort level. The Zips have played just one true road game this season.

Live blogging is back for this game. Things will start around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday from the Arena-Auditorium where the Cowboys will try and win their 300th game out of 400 played there. For the live blog go to: http://wyomingcowboysblog.com/2009/12/24/wyoming-vs-akron-live-blog/