Early Struggles Doom Wyoming in Mountain West Opener vs. Grand Canyon
- Jeff Bugher
- 49 minutes ago
- 4 min read
LARAMIE, Wyo. - The scoreboard didn’t fully capture the fight Wyoming showed Saturday afternoon inside the Arena-Auditorium.
Despite trailing most of the game, the Cowboys showed fight until the final whistle before falling 82-70 to Grand Canyon University in front of 3,863 fans in Laramie, opening Mountain West play with a hard lesson against a seasoned, physical opponent, who played in the NCAA tournament last spring.
Grand Canyon came into Laramie as one of the most experienced teams in Division I. That fact showed as they had a dominant first half and a 16-0 run to seize control early, building a 45-26 halftime lead. Wyoming responded with a much better second half, outscoring the Lopes 44-37, but the early hole proved too deep for any chance of a recovery.
“That’s a really good team,” Wyoming head coach Sundance Wicks said. “They’re big, they’re physical. They provide matchup problems at every corner. I just thought our guys came out a little bit gun shy.”
Wicks pointed directly to experience as a separator.
“For a team that’s 11th in the country in Division I experience in Grand Canyon, and us way down there in Division I experience, it’s a great learning curve,” he said. “There’s a big learning curve for us when it comes to what the league is like every night. This is every night. You’ve got to show up.”
Wyoming dug itself into trouble early, allowing Grand Canyon to control pace and physicality.
“You can’t spot a team 19 points,” Wicks said. “You can’t let them go on a 16-0 run. Something we haven’t done all year.”
Still, the Cowboys’ response in the second half was commendable.
“I thought our second half was better,” Wicks said. “Our team showed up. But it’s easy to play when you’re down 19 and you’ve got to try to chip away. There’s no weight on your ball. You’ve got to be tough enough to handle the moment at the start of it all.”
Abou Magassa echoed that sentiment, pointing to the team’s mindset that’s been built since the summer.
“It’s just our mentality since the summer,” Magassa said. “Like this team is very connected. High, low, always together. We had a talk at half. We knew what we had to fix. And we didn’t win, but I feel like we tried to answer and have a response.”
That response, according to the players, is something they believe defines this group.
“I think the non-conference was made on purpose and it helped us because we have a lot of new guys,” Leland Walker said. “A lot of people, it’s their first time playing in this league. So I think it got us ready. We know what our strengths are… It’s a wake-up call.”
Leland Walker led the team with 13 points.
Walker and Magassa both emphasized that the loss is being viewed as a necessary early test.
“Now our guys know how it is and how it’s going to be every night,” Walker said. “So yeah, we’re just going to bounce back and think about the next game.”
Wicks was well aware that Wyoming struggled from beyond the arc. Wyoming finished just 3-of-26 from three.
“We took way too many non-paint threes, way too many non-rotation threes,” Wicks said. “So we seek paint touch and rotation threes. And if we didn’t get paint and we shot it, it’s a bad shot.”
Wicks tied those choices back to discipline and maturity.
“Everybody starts deviating from the plan,” he said. “Instead of doing the things that we’re supposed to do - defend, rebound, take care of basketball, understand our maniacal shot profile - everybody in the first nine to ten minutes was just deer in the headlights.”
Rebounding effort and interior play were another focal point, especially against a team that shot nearly 57 percent from the floor.
“Grown men games,” Wicks said. “They made layups, we missed ours. But this is every night in the league.”
“You know what killed us?” he said. “Makaih Williams, Jaden Henley. You’ve got to guard, man. You’ve got to win your one-on-one.”
Despite the loss, Wicks was proud of the way his team continued to compete to the final buzzer.
“I think it would say a lot about who your guys are…” he said. “When people look at us, they should see the scoreboard, and they should know if we’re up 20 or down 20, we’re playing the same way.”
That fight will serve the Cowboys well as Mountain West play continues.
“Nobody wins the league at 0-1 or 1-0,” Wicks said. “This league this year is going to be wide open. It’s going to be on which teams can show up consistently every single night.”
As Wyoming heads into the Christmas break before its next game against Air Force, Wicks isn’t worried about his group responding.
“There’s no egos,” he said. “Part of the best part about losing right before the break is you’ve got to sit on this. These guys have got to sit on this. If you lose one at home, guess what you’ve got to do? You’ve got to win one on the road. That’s how this league works.”
Saturday didn’t go the Cowboys’ way on the scoreboard, but the effort, fight and lessons learned may prove valuable as the grind of Mountain West play truly begins.
About the Author:
Jeff Bugher is a third-generation Wyomingite living in Casper. He is a sportswriter and Wyoming Cowboys/Cowgirls enthusiast who is a member of the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA ) and the National Sports Media Association (NSMA). Jeff's work has been cited by Sports Illustrated, one of the world's leading sports publications.
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