Cowboy Basketball Season is Over

The University of Wyoming Men's basketball season came to an end in the first round of the 2011 Conoco Mountain West Conference Tournament. The Cowboys were defeated by TCU, 70-61.

The first and only lead for the Cowboys came with 13:00 left in the second half when they took a 42-41 lead. From there the Cowboys would only score one basket in the next six minutes to go down 52-44 with 7:27 remaining. Wyoming would not recover.

In the final game of the season Francisco 'Paco' Cruz led the Pokes with 14 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists. He was followed by Desmar Jackson with 12 points and 6 rebounds and Amath M'Baye who added 10 points and 6 rebounds. In his final game as a Cowboy, Djibril Thiam put up 6 points and 4 rebounds.

As a team Wyoming shot 37.5 percent from the field, 29 percent from 3-point range and 72 percent from the free throw line while out-rebounding TCU 35-34.

Poor shooting and foul trouble plagued the Cowboys through the first half. Wyoming shot just 28 percent, hitting only 2-of-11 from 3-point range but was only down 27-24 at halftime to a TCU team which shot nearly 41 percent from the field.

When you combine the numbers from both teams, the first half had 17 turnovers and just 19 baskets.

This is the fourth straight year the no. 9 seed has defeated the no. 8 seed in the first round of the Mountain West Conference tournament.

The Horned Frogs were led by Greg Hill with 18 points, Hank Thorns with 16 points and J.R. Cadot who had 13 points and 13 rebounds. TCU moves on to the second round of the 2011 Conoco Mountain West Conference Tournament where they will play the no. 1 seed BYU.

Wyoming finished the season with the same record as last season: 10-21 overall and 3-13 in MWC play.