LARAMIE – Sundance Wicks is big on storylines.
 
Wyoming's first-year head coach, who has hired crew to film the ongoing documentary "Mountain Made" about getting a team with 10 new players ready for the season, wanted to play an exhibition with two themes.
 
"We wanted to advocate for a cause, and we wanted to compete against a culture," Wicks said.
 
The cause that was in the spotlight throughout UW's matchup with the College of Idaho was the Jae Foundation. Several of the Cowboys went to Pinedale over the summer to bond while supporting the non-profit focused on mental health awareness, suicide prevention and healing for those who have lost loved ones.

Jae Foundation founder and visionary Jason Vickrey, who also works with the College of Idaho, was among the 3,480 in attendance.
 
Wicks was already emotional before making his Arena-Auditorium debut as UW's head coach with the news that one of his colleagues, South Florida head coach Amir Abdur-Rahim died Thursday after complications from a medical procedure.
 
There was a lot more than basketball on Wicks' mind when he walked into his postgame press conference with his Jae boots on following the Cowboys 80-63 victory over the NAIA powerhouse.
 
"The South Florida coach, 43. I'm 44," Wicks said when asked about kissing his daughter Grace before the game. "Tonight was a great cause obviously for the Jae Foundation, suicide awareness, mental health and just being able to open that conversation. We lose all sorts of people to all sorts of things in this world and to me you do this for a bigger reason. We didn't go in there and talk about turnovers. We talked about how if you don't handle hard life is going to slap you in the face. That slapped me in the face yesterday when I saw that.
 
"I'm just always grateful for my family, I'm grateful for the people that I'm around, I'm grateful for the state of Wyoming, I'm grateful for this opportunity and it could be gone tomorrow. I didn't mean to get all deep on you but that's the real world of this stuff. There's somebody missing their family right now, there's somebody missing their dad right now and he's 43-years-old. So, we all just need to be more grateful and slow down every once in a while and be thankful for wherever you are and the people you're around."
 
The culture the Pokes competed against was a College of Idaho program ranked No. 2 in the NAIA and a year removed from winning a national championship. The Yotes return their top five scores, who all averaged at least 21 points during last season's 32-4 finish.
 
UW held the visitors to 25% shooting in the first half and 25-for-72 from the field for the game. The Cowboys also had a 47-26 rebounding edge.
 
Senior forward Touko Tainamo finished with 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting on the inside and Dontaie Allen (13 points) and Kobe Newton (12 points) and were a combined 8-for-13 on 3-pointers to lead the offense.
 
The Cowboys closed the first half with an 11-0 run over the final 3:25 to take a 38-24 lead into the intermission. UW shot 62.5% from the field through the first 20 minutes while holding the Yotes to 9-for-36 shooting.
 
"We held a very good offensive team to 24 points. They didn't score the last 3:48 of the half," Newton noted. "That was something we really emphasized in that last media timeout was keeping on them defensively and then everything will take care of itself. Offensively it was a little bit of a rusty half but when you have so many new faces and new guys that will happen."
 
Wicks will address the turnovers – the Pokes had 20 of those, which led to 19 points and 20 more shots for the College of Idaho – but Friday night was about celebrating a victory that won't count on the coach's record.
 
"For me, I was proud to build some of our culture tonight which was competing consistently and trying to stay more connected through some of the adversity," Wicks said. "We were good, I'd say like a B-minus in some of our connectivity. But I thought some of our competitiveness was right around and A."
 
UW opens the regular season against Concordia-St. Paul on Nov. 4 at the Arena-Auditorium.
 
If you are interested in learning more about NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) or would like to support our student-athletes, please visit 1wyo.org. 1WYO was created out of Wyoming's culture of neighbor helping neighbor. The mission is to promote and strengthen local charitable organizations and develop Wyoming student athletes. 
 
Follow Ryan for more stories on Wyoming athletics on X at @By_RyanThorburn on Facebook at Wyoming Athletics and Instagram at wyoathletics. Also follow him at Pokes Insider at Gowyo.com/pokesinsider.