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Wyoming put up 111 points against San Jose State on Wednesday.
Now the Cowboys are out to prevent 19th-ranked San Diego State from putting up 98 on Thursday.
Eighth-seeded Wyoming rides the momentum of a season-best point total in the Mountain West Conference tournament first round when they attempt to shock top-seeded San Diego State in Thursday quarterfinal action in Las Vegas.
The Aztecs (20-4) crushed the Cowboys (14-10) in back-to-back games in San Diego in January, winning 87-57 and 98-71.
Wyoming hadn’t allowed more than 74 points after that until San Jose State put up a generally meaningless 80 in a 31-point drubbing Wednesday.
The Cowboys set two tournament records in the process. Their 111 points set the mark for points in a Mountain West tournament game, and Graham Ike’s 32 points were the most ever by a freshman in tourney history.
Ike paced Wyoming with his season-high point total, hitting 12 of 14 attempts from the field. The Cowboys made 59.7 percent of their shots in totaling 14 more points than in any other game this season.
Bring on the Aztecs, Wyoming coach Jeff Linder demanded afterward.
“We look forward to the opportunity and the challenge,” he said. “It’s really a benchmark to see where we are really at as a program.”
Wyoming led the Mountain West in points scored during the regular season and had a per-game average of 77. But on Thursday, the Cowboys run up against the conference’s best defense, one that limited foes to an average of 60.1 points in the regular season.
The Cowboys got two doses of the Aztecs’ defensive prowess in January when they shot just 30.0 and 43.5 percent in one-sided losses.
San Diego State has won 11 in a row, but wasn’t necessarily playing its best ball of the year at the end of the regular season.
The Aztecs struggled to sweep a pair from Boise State at home two weeks ago — including one overtime affair — before going to Las Vegas and getting extended by the Rebels in a 71-62 win last Wednesday.
San Diego State hasn’t lost since dropping two straight at Utah State in mid-January. A look ahead to the second-seeded Aggies remains in the distance, with Thursday’s winner scheduled to meet either Nevada or Boise State in Friday’s semifinals.
The Aztecs lost 59-56 to Utah State in last year’s tournament.
“The way we will get there is to take it one game at a time,” insisted senior Matt Mitchell, the Mountain West Player of the Year. “We are not looking past anybody.”
Mitchell averaged 19.5 points in the earlier sweep of Wyoming.
San Diego State has won six straight from the Cowboys, including four wins by 20-plus points.
The last time Wyoming beat the Aztecs was an 82-69 decision in December 2017. Wyoming also won the previous tournament matchup, 45-43, in 2015.
–Field Level Media
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