PORTLAND, Ore. (Dec. 1, 2023) – The Wyoming Cowboys could not overcome a scoring run by the Portland Pilots in the first half in an 81-70 loss to Portland in the Chiles Center in Portland, Ore. on Friday evening. Wyoming found itself in foul trouble early and were held to 44 percent from the field in the contest.
"We have to learn from the loss," UW head coach Jeff Linder said. "They made a lot of shots inside and we missed some. It is hard to win on the road. We went from 10 to almost tying late, but we will learn from it. You can sense us being on the road adds up. Our guys are down, but at the same time we will learn from it and get better."
Wyoming was led by Kobe Newton, a native of Portland recorded 14 points hitting a career-high four threes on the night. Sam Griffin added 17 points and was 3-of-6 from behind the arc in the contest. Wenzel added five points and led the team with six rebounds. Akuel Kot added 15 points in the contest as well.
Wyoming finished the night shooting 44 percent from the field and shot 50 percent in the second half. The Pokes shot 50 percent from behind the arc in the contest. Portland countered shooting 51 percent from the field and added eight threes on the night. The Pilots owned a 36-24 advantage on the glass.
Portland got out to a fast start offensively taking an early 8-2 lead in the opening two minutes. Wyoming went on a 6-0 to tie the contest at 10-10 five minutes into the game.
Newton would then take over for the Pokes hitting a trio of triples for the Brown and Gold to take a 25-21 lead halfway through the half. Newton later added his fourth triple and made it a 28-21 game with six-plus minutes in the first frame. Wyoming held Portland scoreless for over four minutes.
Portland went on a 15-0 run over four minutes to take 36-28 lead on Wyoming. Griffin ended a scoring slump with a three-pointer to close the half, as Wyoming trailed 36-31 at the break. Wyoming closed the first half 1-of-9 from the field and shot 39 percent for the frame.
Griffin started the second half with eight points for the Pokes, but another run this time of 6-0 by the Pilots would make it a 49-39 game a little over three minutes into the second half. Wyoming used an 8-0 run to make it a 49-47 game for Portland with Kot and Wenzel adding a triple with a bucket from Oleg Kojenets.
Portland went on a 7-0 run for a 56-47 lead, but Powell ended the run with a and-one play for a 56-50 game with 9:33 remaining. Portland would go on a 5-0 run following to build the lead to double digits. Portland would enjoy that advantage till the final advantage on their way to the victory.
The Pilots were led by Chris Austin with 17 points. He was 6-of-10 from the field in the contest. Alimamy Koroma added 14 points and Tyler Harris led all players with 10 rebounds.
The Cowboys return home for the first time in almost a month to host South Dakota Mines on Tuesday in a 6:30 p.m. start on the Mountain West Network.