Bennett Nets Career-High 27, Leads Pokes Past Nevada, 83-73
LARAMIE -- Steve Alford's New Mexico teams dominated inside the Arena-Auditorium during his six-year run in Albuquerque. The Lobos were 5-1 in this venue. The lone loss was a one-point setback in 2011.
When the future Hall of Famer took the reins in Reno, he picked up right where he left off, outlasting the Cowboys in a late February matchup.
Since?
Well, that's been a much different story.
Khaden Bennett paced Wyoming with a career-high 27 points and three of his teammates reached double figures in Tuesday night's 83-73 victory over visiting Nevada, handing Alford his seventh consecutive loss on the high plains.
The Cowboys have now won four of the last five and are 17-13 overall and 8-11 in Mountain West play. This is the first winning season for the program since the 2020-21 campaign.
"KB was a monster tonight," head coach Sundance Wicks said during his postgame radio appearance. "The lines he has are unbelievable."
That's an understatement.
The 6-foot-4 junior led the Cowboys in rebounding with seven and dished out at team-high five helpers. He drained six triples, all in the first half. The Quinnipiac transfer, who was on the floor for more than 34 minutes, finished 8-of-12 from the field.
That pales in comparison to what he did on the defensive end of the floor, helping limit the Wolf Pack's leading scorer Corey Camper Jr. to just 11 points on 3-of-12 shooting. That's more than six under his season average.
The 6-foot-5 senior torched the Cowboys in the first meeting in early January, netting 31 points.
Bennett finished with a plus-16 in the box score.
"I told you, senior nights are wild, man," Wicks added. "Shooting 69% in the first half. That's a wild first half. I mean, KB goes nuts, right? As I was hugging those guys, coming out in the starting lineups, I said, 'pick up these seniors today.'"
On the surface, the young core of this squad did just that.
Damarion Dennis finished with 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting and hauled in six boards. Rookie big man Gavin Gores, still sporting a heavily bandaged left hand and mask to help protect his broken nose, capped this outing with 11, including three monstrous, rim-rocking dunks that brought the more than 3,400 in attendance to its collective feet.
The first one came after Joel Armotrading missed a wide-open jam at one end. Gores raced the length of the floor, hauled in a perfectly placed dish that was quickly deposited in the face of the aforementioned 6-foot-10 senior.
A stare down ensued. So did two words, Wicks added: "I'm back."
"That was definitely the defining moment that I was back," Gores said postgame, referring to his injuries, which kept him sidelined for five games. "... I made a play. It definitely felt good."
It was Leland Walker, though, according to Wicks, who set the pace in this one.
The Cowboys' leading scorer didn't even attempt a shot through the first 23-plus minutes. When he finally did, he was fouled and calmly sank both free throws to extend the lead to 51-35. He netted a modest 10 points, all coming in the second half, but was a plus-24 on the defensive end in the first frame and finished with three assists.
"I thought Leland was so poised in the first half," Wicks continued. "That's all I want out of a point guard. I don't care of he scores any points ... That's how impactful he was.
"... He closed the game down for us and kept us in it at the end."
Fellow senior Kiani Saxon finished with three rebounds and an assist in his final game in Laramie. Matija Belic, who underwent ankle surgery in early January, watched from the sideline in street clothes.
Wyoming led by as many as 21 after Bennett drained a three with six ticks remaining in the half. Nevada, though, didn't go quietly, going on a 7-0 run out of the locker room. The visitors would get this one to seven, but the clock would run out on the comeback.
"Just a miserable effort for 20 minutes," Alford told Nevada Sports Net. "The first 20 minutes, that wasn't our basketball team. So, I have no idea what team that was in the first half. The second half, the guys that played, really battled and really competed."
Starting guard Tayshawn Comer, who averages 12.2 points a night, never left the bench in the second half after being held off the scoresheet in the first.
The Cowboys won the rebounding battle by two and held a slim advantage in paint points, 36-32. They also ended the night with 18 assists on 29 makes, while shooting 63% overall.
Naz Meyer finished with nine points, all scored in the first half, and Uriyah Rojas chipped in with five.
Nevada was led by forward Elijah Price, who netted 20, including 12 over the final 20 minutes. Tyler Rolison capped his outing with 14 and Vaughn Weems landed nine points and a team-best six rebounds.
Wyoming will travel to San Jose State Saturday for the season finale. Tipoff is slated for 3 p.m. and the game will be streamed on the Mountain West Network.
"We were just flowing and doing our job," Gores said. "We know we got to carry that over to two halves and full games, especially coming into March. We need to stay hot so we can be where we want to be at the end of the conference tournament."