Cowboys Wrangle Blue Raiders 84-63

LARAMIE, Wyo. - The Blue Raiders kept the game close in the first half, but faltered in the second half, taking a disappointing 84-63 loss to the Wyoming Cowboys in big sky country.

The Blue Raiders were down 7-0 with less than two minutes expired in the contest, but righted the ship to pull within three at 10-7 behind a Steve Jackson layup at 16:36.

The back-and-forth would continue for most of the first half as the Blue Raiders pulled close and the Cowboys pulled away.

Middle Tennessee finally pulled within one at 25-24 on Ben Britt's layup with 7:31 remaining in the half.

The 'Pokes jumped back to a six-point advantage with 4:30 left, but Tommy Gunn, who scored the team's last 10 points of the stanza, nailed a three-pointer with 2:34 left to knot the score at 33.

Gunn would put the Blue Raiders up one after two charity tosses with 1:18 left and then pulled the trick again with 40 seconds to go.

Cowboy Jay Straight drilled a trey with 20 seconds left to send the Cowboys to the locker room with a 39-37 lead.

The second half was all Cowboys. The home team 45-26 in the second half and outrebounded the Blue Raiders 21-13 in the final 20 minutes to put the game out of reach.

Tommy Gunn led the Blue Raiders in scoring with 18 points while Steven Jackson added a career-high 16. Kyle Young led the rebounding effort with seven boards.

Joe Ries led the Coyboys with 29 points.

The Blue Raiders return to the Murphy Center on Dec. 4 to take on Alabama State at 7 PM.

NOTES AND QUOTES

The Blue Raiders are now 0-3 all-time against the Mountain West ... Tommy Gunn moved into 17th place on the all-time scoring list tonight, passing Render Carden ... Steven Jackson's 16 points is a new career high, besting his previous high of 15 set last year at Alabama ... The Blue Raiders have now dropped seven straight road openers ... Tommy Gunn now owns 101 career offensive rebounds ... The Blue Raiders have made at least one three-point goal in 213 straight games.

HEAD COACH KERMIT DAVIS
"They were the more determined, more physical team tonight. They guarded our posts with one player and shut us down and we doubled theirs and he scored all night. We just couldn't do anything in the second half. We came out and started shooting it too quick and couldn't get anything going."

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