LARAMIE – Depth makes Wyoming dangerous at 7,220 feet.
 
Leland Walker, the experienced starting point guard, struggled from the start and finished without scoring on 0-for-3 shooting with two assists and six turnovers.
 
Nasir (Naz) Meyer, the reigning Mountain West freshman of the week who was averaging 18.5 points, was 0-for-6 from the field.
 
But head coach Sundance Wicks had the luxury of letting Damarion Dennis and Uriyah Rojas step into the spotlight to lead the Cowboys to a 79-65 victory over Austin Peay on Tuesday night at the Arena-Auditorium.
 
"The beautiful part about this team right now is we had some guys that were buffaloes tonight running through the storm," Wicks said.
 
Dennis, who was awarded the miniature buffalo bust Wicks is handing out to the game's most valuable player, finished 8-for-13 shooting with 17 points, five rebounds, four assists and no turnovers in 32 minutes. The smooth 6-foot-1 sophomore guard's soaring slam dunk gave UW a 73-61 lead with 4:01 remaining as the Governors (2-1) ran out of gas.
 
"This game is a two-way game, man," Wicks said of Dennis. "He plays both ways and he plays both ways hard. He plays the game of basketball the way I like it."
 
Rojas, after spending some time in the doghouse following a lackluster defensive effort in the opener against Northern State, came off the bench and scored 23 points on a 6-for-7 shooting night behind the arc as the Pokes pulled away in the second half. The 6-3 junior guard made three 3-pointers as UW turned a one-possession game (57-54) into a 12-point lead in crunch time.
 
"That's the thing with this team is we've got a lot of guys that can score. We don't rely on just one guy and that's what is going to make us great this year," Rojas said. "I've just learned to stay calm, stay poised throughout situations in a game. Whether it's a close game, whether they're pressuring, stay calm, stay poised."
 
UW led 37-35 at the intermission after Austin Peay cashed 12 turnovers in for 16 points. The teams exchanged 10-0 runs early in the second half before the visitors hit the wall.
 
Sophomore forward Abou Magassa was 3-for-3 from the field and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds and freshman forward Gavin Gores added 10 points with three highlight reel dunks.
 
Junior guard Khaden Bennett was another steadying presence in the backcourt with seven points, five assists and one turnover.
 
"The first half we had way too many turnovers," Dennis said. "In the second we picked it up, played with a lot more urgency and we had them running a little bit. We made a couple runs and ended up winning the game."
 
Wicks was impressed with Walker's leadership as he watched Rojas and the other guards shine from the bench down the stretch.
 
"Leland puts a lot of stress and pressure on Uriyah every day in practice and makes him better," Wicks said. "That's the fruits of Leland Walker pushing him in practice and he has a night like this and Leland was his biggest cheerleader today. The games where Leland has been hot Uriyah is his biggest cheerleader. Pretty cool."
 
The Cowboys, off to a 3-0 start for the first time since 2021-22 when UW made its last NCAA Tournament appearance, will host 3-0 Portland on Saturday at the Arena-Auditorium (7 p.m., Mountain West Network).
 
Wicks will continue to push this new collection of talent to ride for the brand with the same intensity as the head coach.
 
"I love Wyoming so much, man," Wicks said. "I told those guys I will go down swinging every corner, but you've got to start throwing punches with me. Right now, we need to start blindly swinging at everyone who comes across our path and we're going to fight to the very end. I don't know how many games we're going to win or how many games we're going to lose. I know this: We're going to swing. We've got to start making some contact now.
 
"The story (against Austin Peay) is we swung enough to get a TKO at the end of the game but we could have had some knockouts at the 10-minute mark, we could have had some knockouts at about the 18-minute mark of the second half. We let down our guard, and they got a good hit on us and took us to the floor. Now we've got to go up and get a decision. We can't sit here waiting for decisions, we've got to go get some knockouts."
 
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.
 
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