I figured Wyoming would play better against San Diego State than it did in its 83-73 loss to Colorado State on Wednesday.

But I still thought that wouldn’t be enough to beat the Aztecs.

Imagine that, I was wrong. UW won 85-83.

Sophomore forward Afam Muojeke scores 30 points off the bench. Yes, he was benched for what coach Heath Schroyer described as “not being a good teammate” before and after the CSU game.

Sophomore point guard JayDee Luster hits the game-winning 3-point shot with six seconds to play. Kind of fitting he’s a San Diego native, isn’t it? Luster finished with 14 points, and this was the second straight game he set a career-high in points. If he continues to be a scoring threat for UW, that should open up other areas of the offense.

Arthur Bouedo had a big trey, and UW’s pressure defense finally did its job as it forced 15 SDSU turnovers in the second half. Meanwhile, UW had just two.

SDSU is 6-24 all-time at UW. The Aztecs were without leading scorer, junior forward Billy White, because of an ankle injury. The Aztecs played only eight guys big-time minutes. But I will say, true freshman Kawhi Leonard is the real deal. He finished with 25 points and 12 rebounds. Another freshman, guard Chase Tapley, had 17 points. Those guys are really good!

UW trailed by as many as 17 in the game yet won.

But as I stated in my column for Sunday’s paper, it was the effort that stood out to me. If the Cowboys show this kind of effort the rest of the way then this team will be competitive and entertaining. We’ve seen how bad it can be when it doesn’t play with great effort. It was nice to see the other side of this.