The Wyoming Cowboys men’s basketball team nearly erased a big deficit before falling to Colorado State 68-59 on Saturday afternoon in Laramie.

“It’s hard against a team [Colorado State] like that when you spot them an 18-point lead in the first 15 minutes of the game,” UW head coach Jeff Linder said, adding, “We were on our heels a little bit tonight.”

Linder praised his squad’s defensive efforts and rally in the last 25 minutes, “But you have to expend so much energy to make a run like that,” he said. “and when you look at the number of bodies we have available it was just too hard to overcome that early deficit.”

Wyoming (10-9 overall and 4-8 in conference play) was led by Graham Ike and Drake Jeffries, who each added 13 points. Ike added nine rebounds. 

The Pokes were held to six 3-pointers, after hitting at least 10 in the previous seven games. On the flip side, Wyoming held the Rams (14-4 overall, 11-3 in conference) to only three triples in the game — and just seven total field goals in the second half.

The Rams built a 26-8 advantage halfway through the first period and led 39-29 at the half. Ike helped pull the Pokes within a point with 2:27 remaining, scoring six-straight to make it 60-59, but Colorado State hung on.