March 1, 2011
Final Stats | Quotes | Notes | AP Photo Gallery
LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) - For the second time this season San Diego State played Wyoming after losing to BYU. Both times the Aztecs won big.
"We had a tough loss to BYU two times this year, and both times, the game after, I think we played well," forward Malcolm Thomas said after the ninth-ranked Aztecs beat Wyoming 85-58 on Tuesday night.
Thomas and Brian Carlwell both scored 15 points in an arena where the Aztecs haven't been very successful.
"We tried not to stay too frustrated after the loss," Thomas said of Saturday's 80-67 defeat at home to the third-ranked Cougars. "We came and practiced hard. We knew Wyoming was playing well, so we had to bring it again, and I think we did a good job of that."
San Diego State (28-2, 13-2 Mountain West) won the first meeting with the Cowboys 96-57 on Jan. 29, three days after losing 71-58 to BYU.
The Aztecs lost in Laramie in 2009 and 2010 and in 24 of their last 30 games in the arena.
The BYU loss and the team's dismal record in Laramie left Aztecs coach Steve Fisher "anxious" to see how his team would play Tuesday night.
"We've had a hard time winning here, period," Fisher said.
Wyoming (10-19, 3-12) used a full-court press to take a 15-14 lead 9:35 into the first half on a basket by Desmar Jackson, who led the Cowboys with 16 points.
The Aztecs used two 11-0 runs keyed by Thomas and Carlwell to pull away and Wyoming never got closer than 16 points in the second half.
"I reminded them at halftime about last year when we had a double-digit lead at halftime and let it get away from us," Fisher said. "We didn't do that today."
It was SDSU's largest margin of victory in Laramie. In 2003, the Aztecs won by 13 points.
San Diego State extended its streak of not losing two in a row to 48 games.
The 6-foot-9 Thomas had 11 rebounds and the 6-11 Carlwell had eight. Both shot 6 of 9 from the field and recorded two blocks as SDSU scored 52 points in the paint.
Kawhi Leonard added 12 points and nine rebounds, and D.J. Gay had 11 points for the Aztecs, who shot 52.5 percent from the field and outrebounded the Cowboys 43-26.
Djibril Thiam had 13 points for Wyoming, which shot 42.6 percent.
The Cowboys lost their second consecutive game, their first two-game losing streak under interim coach Fred Langley, who took over after Heath Schroyer was fired on Feb. 7.
"It was the first time in the last few games that we didn't match our opponent's intensity," Langley said.