LARAMIE, Wyo. — What goes around comes around. After the Pokes went into UNLV territory and won on the road just a few weeks ago, the Rebels did the very same today in the Dome of Doom in Laramie, Wyoming. Cowboy star Obi Agbim led the way once again with 14 points.
Despite the disparate final box score of 68–57, the first half was neck and neck. The Cowboys, despite losing the jump ball, would put up the first points of the night courtesy of Abou Magassa off a Cole Henry assist. UNLV’s Jeremiah Cherry would respond with an identical play.
The rest of the first half would look much the same. Another Magassa bucket would turn into a UNLV score. A UNLV alley-oop would lead to a Henry layup.
That Henry play would also be the first time Agbim was involved in scoring — four minutes into regulation. Finally waking up, Agbim would then grab two rebounds in the span of a minute and would later score his first points with a jump shot with 13:52 left in the half. By then, however, he was already 1–3 shooting.
Wyoming would regain a lead about nine minutes into the game with a Henry hookshot. Henry was the second highest scorer of the night for the Cowboys with 10 points and a career-tying six assists.
UNLV would start showing signs of being the better team with about three minutes left in the half, when it went on a 5–0 run to take a 28–22 lead. The Cowboys would grab just 1 more point before halftime, but the Rebels would get an easy layup with just five seconds left.
Almost immediately into the second half — more specifically a 3-point pull-up jump shot by UNLV’s Julian Rishwain to take an 8-point lead — the Rebels would begin their steady ascent into dominance.
The Rebels would get away with 4 more points before Magassa would come back with another layup. The freshman Frenchman who won the Mountain West Conference’s Freshman of the Week award a few weeks ago was a perfect 4–4 from the field tonight.
Wyoming’s next points would be Magassa’s last. His 2-point hook shot would close the UNLV lead to 10. At this point, Wyoming’s mission was to at least stay within that range. The closest they would get for the rest of the game to catching up with the rebels was 7 points.
Wyoming and UNLV would trade buckets for the rest of the game until the Rebels would eventually take the win 68–57. The Rebels held the Cowboys to a season-low four 3-pointers made out of 21 total attempts. The Pokes were 42.37% from the rest of the field.
Behind Agbim and Henry, Magassa would be the third-highest scorer with 9 points. Most of the Cowboys’ bench would make at least 2 points besides three players: Dontaie Allen, Oleg Kojenets and A.J. Wills. They played 17 minutes, four minutes and 16 minutes, respectively. Allen scored 10 points against the Utah State Aggies just four days ago.
The Pokes’ home stint is up, and they are going to hit the road first to New Mexico, where they’ll face the conference-leader Lobos on Wednesday at 8 p.m. Mountain Time.
