Tuck’s Take: Abysmal Shooting Leads to 15th Straight Loss to SDSU
SAN DIEGO, Calif., -- The fight was admirable.
The offense, on the other hand, was nothing short of abysmal.
Wyoming sank just 17 total shots from the field Tuesday night, including only eight from inside the arc in a 72-63 road setback at San Diego State, the 15th consecutive loss to the frontrunning Aztecs.
Leland Walker netted only seven points on 2-of-6 shooting and fouled out with more than five minutes left in regulation. The Cowboys' leading scorer had reached double figures in nine straight. Freshman guard Naz Meyer was held off the scoresheet, missing all four of his attempts in just 13 minutes on the floor.
The Cowboys fall to 13-10 overall and 4-8 in Mountain West play, while SDSU remains at the top of the league standings, along with Utah State and New Mexico, with just two conference losses.
Head coach Sundance Wicks joked that his team was due for an offensive breakout before a 68-57 victory over rival Colorado State last Saturday. Khaden Bennett and Co. responded with a dozen triples and a 44% night in the shooting department.
That was a clinic.
This was a disaster.
"If you can't run your offense against pressure, or if you can't run an action against pressure and you can't get into an advantage against pressure -- It's a pretty high-level, man," Wicks said on his postgame radio appearance on Learfield, referring to the Aztecs length and athleticism on the defensive end of the floor. "If you can't do that, you're gonna have slim pickings every night."
Though the visitors did sink nine from deep, SDSU dominated in the paint to the tune of 38-10. Even without the services of 7-footer Magoon Gwath, the Aztecs were 12-of-14 at the rim, led by Reese Dixon-Waters, who finished this one with a game-high 23 points.
Wyoming, playing without big man Abou Magassa, made just 3 of its 11 shots from inside the paint.
While the Cowboys were marred in a 32% shooting night, the Aztecs took advantage beginning at the 6:02 mark of the first half. That's when former Cowboy Jeremiah Oden drilled a corner three to erase a brief 19-17 Wyoming advantage.
That was the last lead of the night.
That shot sparked a 23-5 SDSU run as the lead ballooned to an insurmountable 17. The Cowboys were held scoreless for more than seven minutes in that span.
To add a little salt to that wound, Oden scored his 1,000th career point in this one. For the graduate transfer, 644 of those came in a Wyoming uniform from 2020 to '23.
Yes, SDSU is ranked No. 23 in the nation in field-goal percentage defense. That's not breaking news. Wyoming helped the cause, though, picking up 13 fouls over the first 20 minutes, three of which belonged to Walker. Same goes for Simm-Marten Saadi. Freshman forward Gavin Gores was also limited to only seven minutes with two.
"Ultimately, that stretch in the first half where we got guys in foul trouble and couldn't quite close it out the way we wanted to (hurt)," Wicks said. "Sometimes, my thing is, you got to make it to the media (timeout). You just got to win that two-minute stretch right there. Maybe make a shot and keep it close, just to kind of stop the bleeding and get a little tourniquet on it right there before half.
"Those stretches have been killing us this year."
Bennett followed up his 22-point performance against CSU with 14 on just 3-of-11 shooting, all makes coming from deep. The junior added five more at the free-throw line. He also had four assists. Damarion Dennis, who netted 16 against the Rams, also finished with 14 points in this one. Uriyah Rojas capped his night with 11.
With Walker in and out of the lineup and Meyer dealing with a "charley horse," the threesome above kept the score close in the final frame, cutting the Aztecs' lead to just seven with 13:10 remaining. Wyoming again came within 10 with 5:54 left on the game clock.
"I'll give our guys credit, man. I came in at halftime and I said, 'At about the 12-minute mark in the second half, San Diego State is going to either be up 20 or we're going to have some grit, we're going to have some toughness, we're going to fight back and we're going to get in this bad boy," Wicks added. "And that unit with Uriyah, Dennis and Khaden, they came out there and fought a little bit and made some shots. They got some stops and that showed me a little bit of life, a little bit of spark."
It wasn't enough.
Miles Heide and Miles Byrd, who finished with seven and 12 points, respectively, took care of the rest in front of an announced crowd of 11,614 inside Viejas Arena, a venue the Cowboys haven't won in since 2007.
The Cowboys return home this Saturday to take on Utah State, a team with just three losses this season. Wyoming suffered a 32-point loss inside the Spectrum in Logan just seven days ago. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. and the game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
"Good thing about the Utah State game is we didn't show them anything last time," Wicks joked. "So, I'm not sure they'll be ready for anything that we do."