Cowboys look to bring old brand of basketball back
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Jeremy Martin/WyoSports
Senior Josh Adams has led the Cowboys this year as they try to recreate the magic from last season.
LARAMIE – Josh Adams said it was the first time this season he's seen it.
The University of Wyoming senior guard was talking about playing "Cowboys basketball" in UW's 68-64 home win Wednesday night over CSU-Bakersfield.
Despite seeing a 13-point second-half lead evaporate with less than a minute to play, the Cowboys made the necessary plays to win.
"We closed it out," said Adams, who scored a game-high 23 points and had team bests with six rebounds and four assists.
"We executed and made plays you don't see on the score sheet."
One of those plays was made by junior guard Jason McManamen, who drew an offensive foul in the final seconds.
Several other plays made the score sheet, such as what proved to be the game-winning basket by sophomore forward Jonathan Barnes on a dunk. Sophomore forward Alan Herndon added the assist with 13 seconds to play.
McManamen made two free throws with 5.1 seconds left for the final points of the game. UW made 21 of 22 free throws in the game.
The Cowboys weren't able to make a lot of those plays in their 83-82 loss to Montana State last Sunday in Billings, Montana. They get another shot at the Bobcats at 6 p.m. today at the Arena-Auditorium.
"I played terrible defense, and a lot of the older guys played terrible defense," Adams said about the first Montana State game. "We corrected that (against CSU-Bakersfield). We can't be lackadaisical on defense, and we must bring that (today)."
Adams scored a career-high 36 points against the Bobcats last week. UW also made 12 3-pointers and shot 53.3 percent from the field.
But it allowed Montana State guards Marcus Colbert and Tyler Hall to combine for 54 points on 20-of-37 shooting. The Cowboys also missed nine free throws.
UW was 13-4 in games last season decided by single digits. The win over CSU-Bakersfield was its first this season.
This game will be similar to conference play for UW in terms of playing the same opponent twice. This is Montana State's first game since it beat UW last week.
"We can't take away everything, but we have to decide what we can and what we can control," UW coach Larry Shyatt said. "The second time around is a give-and-take situation. Do you change a lot or little? Do you change matchups?
"It will be good for our staff gets used to it, as well as our team."
Adams receives reprimand
Adams was issued a public reprimand Friday by the Mountain West for his conduct during the CSU-Bakersfield game.
Adams was assessed a Class A unsporting technical foul for disrespectfully contacting an official, which also was in violation of the Mountain West Sportsmanship Rule Sections 4.2-a and 4.4.1.
The incident occurred with 5 minutes, 27 seconds left in the game.
The Mountain West had no further comment regarding this case. The provisions of the MW Sportsmanship Policy can be found in Rule 4 of the MW Handbook, which can be accessed at TheMW.com.
