CANCÚN, Mex. — The Wyoming Cowboys basketball team dropped a rollercoaster game against Loyola Marymount in the championship of the preseason Cancun Challenge, falling 73–70.
The Cowboys trailed by as many as 16 points at one point before battling back, and even built up a 10-point lead of their own in the second half. However, LMU had the last laugh, ending the game with a strong push to take the tournament.
“We made good adjustments in the second half to get back in it, but I tip my cap to LMU,” UW head coach Sundance Wicks said. “In the first half we talked about transition and 18 of their 40 points came in transition, and you can’t give a team like that those numbers. I told our guys to think about one thing you could have done better and I have been thinking about it since the game got over myself.”
The Cowboys were led by Obi Agbim, who scored 23 points and has now scored in double figures 50 times in his career. He was 3-of-4 from behind the arc. Cole Henry added 12 points for back-to-back games in double-figures. He was 5-of-8 from the field.
Jordan Nesbitt added 10 points and 10 rebounds for his fourth-straight double-double and fifth of the season. Kobe Newton added nine points for the Cowboys.
Agbim got off to a fast start with 8 points to give Wyoming a 10–9 lead in the opening three minutes of the game. LMU used the transition game and Cowboy turnovers and took a 13–10 lead on the Cowboys roughly five minutes into the opening half.
LMU’s Jevon Porter opened the game 5-of-5 and 3-of-3 from behind the arc and gave the Lions a 19–14 lead. The Cowboys could not slow down the Lions, with LMU building a 27–16 lead on the Pokes with under nine minutes left in the first stanza.
The Cowboys cut an LMU lead of 16 points to 10 points with under three minutes left in the half, but the Lions ultimately took a 40–27 lead into the half, shooting 53% in the frame with the Pokes being held to 30%.
Henry recorded a pair of buckets to open the second half to make it a nine-point contest at 40–31. Nesbitt added a triple and a pair of free throws to make it a five-point game at 41–36 with just under 18 minutes left in the game.
Agbim gave the Pokes a lead with a triple for a score of 44–43 about five minutes into the second half. The lead was short-lived, though, with the Lions building the lead back to three points. Wyoming took a 52–49 lead on a Touko Tainamo layup halfway through the half.
Scottie Ebube pushed the lead to five points at 56–51 with his first bucket of the game with nine minutes left. He gave Wyoming a nine-point lead, but a 3-pointer from LMU made it a six-point game until Ebube added another bucket for a 62–64 game with under seven minutes left.
After the Cowboys took a 10-point lead, the Lions went on a 10–0 run to tie the game at 64–64 with three minutes left in the contest. A 3-pointer by Jevon Port would give LMU a 67–66 lead.
Henry made it a one-point game once again with 10 seconds left. LMU pushed the contest to three points with eight seconds left and the cowboys got a look late but fell 73–70.
