LARAMIE – Gone in 64 seconds.
 
That was the story of Wyoming's 59-53 lead over Air Force late in Saturday's game at the Arena-Auditorium.
 
Kam Sanders cut the Cowboy advantage in half with a 3-pointer. The relentless freshman guard tied the score with another deep make behind the arc on the next possession.
 
Then the crowd of 4,422 let out a collective gasp as Sanders gave the Falcons – a team still searching for its first Mountain West victory – a 62-59 lead with 2:04 remaining by burying a third consecutive 3 for the visitors.
 
UW head coach Sundance Wicks, who had been warning anyone within earshot for days and throughout the first 38 minutes of the game that Air Force would never quit, finally had his team's attention.
 
"At that point, now I get to do my job because now they're humbled. There's humility involved," Wicks said. "I've tried to tell you what's going to happen. I don't like to say I'm prophetic but I'm telling you what's coming, you can feel it. As coaches you get that feeling and once that happens now guess what? Huddles get a little tighter; they start listening to old Coach a little bit more."

The response was led by one of UW's dynamic freshmen.
 
Nasir (Naz) Meyer created just enough space to make a difficult floater while falling away from the basket to get the Pokes within a point. After Sanders finally missed a shot, Damarion Dennis came up with a critical offensive rebound on the other end that led to an and-one by Meyer to give UW a 64-62 lead with 35 seconds left.
 
The Cowboys finished the game with a 7-0 run to improve to 16-13 overall and 7-11 in the MW with two games remaining in the regular season.
 
However, the home locker room sounded like the losing locker room.
 
"We've got to be better," Meyer said. "In terms of responding to that situation, we did a good job. But we shouldn't have been in that position. … All respect to Air Force. They deserved to win."

Dennis continued his late-season surge with 16 points, three assists and only one turnover in 30 minutes. Meyer and Adam Harakow added 14 points each.
 
Simm-Marten Saadi made back-to-back lefthanded layups on drives to give the Cowboys their six-point cushion just before Sanders' 3-point eruption.

"That wasn't how we play," Meyer said after UW squandered a 10-point halftime lead. "We won and it's always great to win but we didn't do it the right way."
 
Wicks issued the following warning about the last-place Falcons (3-26, 0-18) during his press conference last Thursday: "A dangerous man is a man who has nothing to lose. A dangerous team is a team that has desperate energy."

The Cowboys now understand their stay in Las Vegas for the looming MW Tournament will be a short one unless they play with more balance and passion from the opening tip.
 
"If that's who we are coming down the stretch, that's not going to be good for us," Wicks said after UW improved to 13-4 at home this season. "So, we better get back to who we've been the last five games outside of this one. I won't sleep well tonight because the process was wrong."
 
UW pulled out the win over Air Force despite shooting 35.4% from the field and Sanders' spectacular performance that included 16 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
 
The disappointment can be gone in 40 minutes if Wicks sees the type of effort from the brown and gold displayed during the recent gutty win at Grand Canyon. The Pokes, who have won three of their last four games, host Nevada in the home finale Tuesday at the Arena-Auditorium.
 
"You never underestimate the will of man," Wicks said of Air Force's fight. "Everybody's still got life nowadays. This isn't where four teams don't make the conference tournament. You're still playing for something. We're trying to tell our guys, 'You're still playing for something.'"
 
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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