Cow­boys Con­tinue to Struggle

Wyoming went head to head with Utah on Sat­ur­day in hopes to get back to .500 in the con­fer­ence and on the sea­son. Wyoming entered the match up one game above Utah in hopes of increas­ing that lead. Utah came into the AA look­ing for their fist Moun­tain West win of the year. The Cow­boys expected to be matched pretty well with the Utes but they were over­whelmed early. Utah came out run­ning and Wyoming did not seem ready for the speed of the game. Utah built an early lead forc­ing the Cow­boys to play from behind the whole first half. In the sec­ond half Wyoming came out with some steam want­ing to get back into the game. After going on a run they had cut the lead down to ten and the crowd was on their feet. They then cut the lead to nine but the run was short lived for Cow­boys as Utah pulled away again. Both teams played pretty even in the sec­ond half but the Cow­boys were too far behind to catch up. … Con­tinue Reading

Tough Lost for the Cowgirls

The Cow­girls hosted the TCU Horned Frogs Wednes­day night for a matchup of unbeaten teams in Moun­tain West play. Both teams entered the game 2–0 in the con­fer­ence and both fight­ing to stay atop of MWC. The Cow­girls knew this would be a tough game since they would be fac­ing off with the defend­ing MWC cham­pi­ons. The first half of the game was rough for the Cow­girls as they strug­gled to break down the Horned Frog defense. This strong defense gave TCU an early lead which Wyoming kept small in the first half. Mid way through the half Wyoming started get­ting their rhythm back and got the fans into the game. Until this point the fans were pretty quiet but they finally started mak­ing noise. The AA filled with sound as fans cheered the team on. Some teams will be affected by the noise but unfor­tu­nately for Wyoming TCU was not. The Cow­girls went into the half down three points which is not bad since the Horned Frogs shot almost 9% bet­ter than they did. The sec­ond half was started by Wyoming scor­ing on their first pos­ses­sion then get­ting a stop. This momen­tum did not last long though; the Cow­girls missed their next six shots. Dur­ing this stretch Sewell made two free throws but this did not help much as TCU con­tin­ued to extend their lead. With 13:20 to go in the half the Cow­girls made their sec­ond bas­ket of the half. In the sec­ond half every time the Cow­girls would get some­thing going TCU would answer mak­ing it hard for Wyoming to get back in the game. … Con­tinue Reading

UW Mar­tial Artist Wins Bronze Medal at Inter­na­tional Karate Tournament

Ben Froide­vaux (on right side of podium) at the 2010 Basel Open Karate Mas­ters Inter­na­tional Karate Tournament.(Courtesy)

Decem­ber 14, 2010 — Uni­ver­sity of Wyoming Karate Club instruc­tor and Out­reach Tech­nol­ogy Ser­vices tech­ni­cian Ben Froide­vaux won a bronze medal at the recent 2010 Basel Open Karate Mas­ters Inter­na­tional Karate Tour­na­ment held on Decem­ber 11–12 in Frenk­endorf, Switzer­land just out­side of Basel.  There were over 560 com­peti­tors from 15 coun­tries par­tic­i­pat­ing at the tour­na­ment, includ­ing National team mem­bers from France, Ger­many, Italy, Den­mark, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Lux­em­bourg, Rus­sia, Turk­menistan and Switzer­land.  Now train­ing with élite mem­bers of the Swiss National Karate Team, Froide­vaux (a fifth degree black belt orig­i­nally from Neucha­tel, Switzer­land) rep­re­sented his native coun­try in the Veteran’s Divi­sion (ages 40–50) in both Kata (forms) and Kumite (spar­ring).  Froide­vaux was awarded a bronze medal (3^rd place) for Kumite and also placed 4^th in Kata.

“It’s very inter­est­ing and edu­ca­tional to expe­ri­ence the dif­fer­ences of mar­tial arts com­pe­ti­tion in Europe and the USA”, says Froide­vaux (a 3-time State Games of Amer­ica National karate cham­pion) who also holds mul­ti­ple regional and Wyoming state titles in karate and fenc­ing.  “Like in the USA, the Euro­pean tour­na­ment orga­niz­ers and ref­er­ees are strict, with well-enforced rules for the safety of the par­tic­i­pants, which lim­its the num­bers of injuries that can hap­pen”, accord­ing to Froide­vaux.  “Although the karate styles are sim­i­lar to those in the USA, the choice of Katas in com­pe­ti­tion is stan­dard­ized and the level of dif­fi­culty and per­for­mance is very high, which makes for great spir­ited com­pe­ti­tion, inter­na­tional cama­raderie, and an enthu­si­as­tic fan-based atmos­phere of friendly rivalry much like that at a good foot­ball or bas­ket­ball game.”

Upset at the AA

Moun­tain West play has begun and after a tough loss in the con­fer­ence opener at CSU the Cow­boys were ready for the home opener. Wyoming’s first home Moun­tain West game came Sat­ur­day against a really good New Mex­ico team. New Mex­ico came into this game with only three losses on the sea­son. The play­ers knew they would be in for a bat­tle but a lock down defense and a hot offense gave the Cow­boys an early lead. Seven min­utes in the Cow­boys were shoot­ing 71% while hold­ing the Lobos to 33% from the field. At the 9:57 mark, Har­ri­son hit a big three to give the Cow­boys a four point lead and a lit­tle momen­tum but New Mex­ico kept it close. The speed of the Lobos gave Wyoming some trou­ble late in the first half and shifted the momen­tum to New Mex­ico. These trou­bles saw New Mex­ico go on a run. A ques­tion­able block­ing foul called on Lus­ter added to the strug­gles Wyoming was fac­ing. Fol­low­ing the foul Jack­son had a block which sparked a fire for the Cow­boys. Wyoming put up a fight and Har­ri­son nailed a three as the buzzer sounded to give the Cow­boys a one point lead enter­ing the half. … Con­tinue Reading

MWC/MVC Chal­lenge

Jay Dee Lus­ter looks for an open­ing as he flies towards the bas­ket. (Jeremy Stegall/LFP)

Wyoming faced Indi­ana State in the Moun­tain West Conference/Missouri Val­ley Con­fer­ence Chal­lenge. The Cow­boys just came off of a three game los­ing streak on the road and was ready to get some­thing going. Both of these teams are off to a slow start this year. At the end of the game Wyoming got the much needed win. They ended up tak­ing charge of the game hand­ing Indi­ana State an 81–51 loss. This win put both teams at 3–5 on the season.

Wyoming had a slow start in this game but even­tu­ally got it going. This was an aggres­sive game; evi­dence of this comes from the fact that the first four points scored came at the free throw line. The Cow­boys tied the game at four but then Indian State went on a small run. Wyoming responded to the 0–6 run by going on a 9–2 run. With 11:20 left in the first half Afam hit a three point shot giv­ing the Cow­boys a lead that would only get larger. After that bas­ket the Wyoming never gave up the lead.

The Cow­boys have been work­ing on a zone defense that they used tonight. This new defense seemed to work well for Wyoming; it held the oppo­nent to only 51 points. The play­ers were reluc­tant to say any­thing about this crazy new defense. They do not want its secrets to get out, the less oppo­nents know the bet­ter it will work. Head coach Heath Schroyer chose not to say much about it either. He said they used it longer tonight than they had planned on using it. He said he has used it before at other schools and hopes it will work here. No mat­ter what they are will­ing to say it works. Wyoming came up with 16 steals and scored 32 points off of 22 turnovers.

The points off of turnovers shows the defense paid off. They were able to con­vert turnovers into points which was impor­tant to this win. The Cow­boys were led by Demar Jack­son with 17 points but there was enough points to go around. Five Cow­boy play­ers posted dou­ble digit point totals. Not only could they score but they could pass also. Wyoming had 11 assists and only gave up one steal. They shot the ball really well going 50% from the field, 33.3% from three point range and 75% from the free throw line. If they can keep up this team work and con­tinue to shoot this well they could really turn the sea­son around.

They all know they still have work to do. Even though they looked good tonight there is still room for improve­ment. After the game Afam Muo­jeke said, “We have go to bring it every game, we can’t just do it a home.” They play well at home but for some rea­son they strug­gle on the road. If they can fig­ure out how to take this kind of play­ing on the road they could be a scary team. Schroyer agrees with this say­ing, “We need to go out and fig­ure out how to win a road game.” He knows they have the skill to win big games he just needs to fig­ure out how to uti­lize this tal­ent on the road. Another prob­lem Schroyer found was rebound­ing. He made a num­ber of com­ments on how they need to rebound the ball bet­ter. They were out rebounded 30–40 in this game. They had a few balls that hit their hands but they could not hold on to. Schroyer wants to work on this so the team does not lose the rebound bat­tle. … Con­tinue Reading

Rise of a Star

Chaun­dra Sewell fights for the ball after div­ing for a rebound on Sat­ur­day after­noon against the Idaho Van­dals. (Jeremy Stegall/LFP)

The Wyoming Cow­girls returned home after a four game road trip and they were ready to play in front of Cow­girl fans. The excite­ment of play­ing in Laramie was taken back a lit­tle with the loss of starter Kris­ten Schef­fler. The Cow­girls looked vul­ner­a­ble when it came out Kris­ten would not be play­ing. The vis­it­ing Idaho Van­dals came into this game 5–1 and very con­fi­dent but this con­fi­dence soon faded. The Cow­girls just came off a dou­ble digit loss which moti­vated them for this game. Being down play­ers was not going to slow down the Cowgirls.

This was a tough fought phys­i­cal game from the tip. This phys­i­cal play led to foul trou­ble for both teams. The ref­er­ees lost the sup­port of the crowd early in the game with ques­tion­able calls. It is hard to say either team was on the wrong side of bad calls but Cow­girls fans were not happy. Hillary got into foul trou­ble caus­ing her to miss a lot of the sec­ond half. While she was out the Van­dals cut the lead from eleven to six. Even with foul trou­ble the Cow­girls played aggres­sive until the final buzzer.

Kris­ten Schef­fler being out meant some­body would need to step up. Chaun­dra Sewell got her first start tonight and she did not dis­ap­point. Coach Joe Leg­erski said after the game that Chaun­dra did not know she would be start­ing until about five min­utes before tipoff. … Con­tinue Reading

Bro­ken Angels: Music video

Big win before head­ing to Cancun

Arthur Bouedo pas­sion­ately dri­ves around a Leath­er­neck defender on his way to the basket.

Just one day after suf­fer­ing a tough loss the Wyoming Cow­boys took the court again. They faced West­ern Illi­nois (2−2) in the sec­ond and last U.S. based game in the Can­cun Chal­lenge. When the Final buzzer went off the Cow­boys found them­selves on the right side of a 64–55 final score. This was a big win for the Cow­boys and should give them momen­tum for their upcom­ing games in Cancun.

Both teams started slow in the first half. Although Wyoming got off to an early lead the first nine min­utes had West­ern Illi­nois on top. At the 10:52 mark Djib­ril Thiam hit two free throws which gave Wyoming a lead that they did not sur­ren­der. This was a hard fought close game but after this point the Cow­boys took the lead and did not look back. West­ern Illi­nois gave it their all but the lock down defense of the Cow­boys was too much for them to overcome.

The Cow­boys took the court and looked like a team for the whole game. There were some wor­ries how the team would look after off court issues left them a few play­ers short in the last game. They were able to for­get the past and played like there were never trou­bles. Wyoming played tough defense lim­it­ing West­ern Illi­nois to only 45 field goal attempts. West­ern Illi­nois tried to match the Cow­boys’ defense but this only led them to foul trou­ble. Wyoming took advan­tage of this shoot­ing 68% from the line giv­ing them 17 free points. The Cow­boys were led by Des­mar Jack­son and Djib­ril Thiam both scor­ing 13 points. Wyoming had great ball move­ment which allowed eight dif­fer­ent play­ers to put points on the board. Although the teams were pretty even with rebounds Wyoming shot slightly bet­ter and took advan­tage of fouls. The Cow­boys made 17 free throws which was one more than West­ern Illi­nois even attempted. The aggres­sive play­ing that led to these free throws helped the Cow­boys hold the lead.

After the game Wyoming head coach Heath Schroyer stressed that the team needs to prac­tice. He talked a lot about how play­ing games close together is hard on the team and leaves lit­tle time for prac­tice. Thiam, Lus­ter and Jack­son all talked about hard work. Hav­ing this win before going to Can­cun was very impor­tant to all three of them. The quote that really stood out though came when Des­mar said, “We can’t loses at home.” Pretty much if they want to win on the road they have to start by win­ning in Laramie.

[pur­chase pho­tos here]

… Con­tinue Reading

44–0 vic­tory brings new hope for 2011

David Leonard cel­e­brates the pokes vic­tory and raises the Bronze Boot in cel­e­bra­tion. (Jeremy Stegall/LFP)

On Sat­ur­day after­noon the Wyoming Cow­boys 3–9 (1−7 MWC) took on the Col­orado State Rams 3–9 (2−6 MWC) in the 102^nd meet­ing in the Bor­der War. The Cow­boys are com­ing off of six straight losses and need any momen­tum they can sal­vage head­ing into the off-season. The Rams are com­ing off of back-to-back MWC losses and had only won one of their pre­vi­ous four games. Both teams needed a win to send them into the off-season with opti­mism for the 2011 season.

In the first quar­ter both defenses came to play. The first spark of offense came in Wyoming’s sec­ond drive. The spark was lit by a lat­eral to Austyn Carta-Samuels who ran for 37 yards to put the ball on the one-yard line. The Cow­boys scored on the very next play, a one yard touch­down run for Alvester Alexan­der. The drive put the Cow­boys up 6–0 after a botched PAT. In the fol­low­ing drive, CSU quar­ter­back Pete Thomas threw an inter­cep­tion on the sec­ond play of the drive to Tashaun Gip­son. The pick was Gipson’s third of the sea­son and sixth of his career. The Cow­boys cap­i­tal­ized on the early turnover with a 20 yard field goal to put the Pokes up 9–0 over CSU with 4:22 left in the first quar­ter. The Rams began their next drive by get­ting into Cow­boy ter­ri­tory but were stuffed in their rush­ing attempts and turned the ball over on downs. To end the first quar­ter Wyoming pushes the ball into Ram ter­ri­tory and is ahead 9–0. Carta-Samuels went 8-of-9 with 80 yards in the air and 34 yards on the ground to end the quar­ter. … Con­tinue Reading

Cow­boys get crushed by UNLV

Las Vegas — The Cow­boys fell to the UNLV Rebels 16–42 in Las Vegas on Sat­ur­day night. The Cowboy’s opened the game with a touch­down within the first 19 sec­onds of the game to make the score 7–0. They fol­lowed that up with an unsuc­cess­ful on-side kick. At the end of the first half the Pokes left the field with the score 21–13 in favor of the Rebels. The Cow­boys never took the lead again and quickly fell behind.

With less than two min­utes left in the game, #6 Robert Her­ron was tack­led by Starr Fuimaono and had to be wheeled off the field in an ambu­lance. Pre­lim­i­nary reports from after the game indi­cate that Her­ron suf­fered no seri­ous injuries. Her­ron will be held overnight at Sun­rise hos­pi­tal in Las Vegas for observation.

Final score 16–42 UNLV … Con­tinue Reading