By Benny Garcia — Reporter
Just like that, the dreams of a tournament victory for San Jose State men’s basketball are over.
The No. 9 seeded Spartans fell to No. 8 University of Wyoming in a blowout 111-80 loss in the opening round of the Mountain West Men’s Basketball Championship.
Wednesday’s loss was the Spartans’ first game in 17 days after team activities were paused because of positive COVID-19 cases in the program.
“Being idle and having to quarantine, there were some guys in the game that logged in some minutes who haven’t played most of the year,” head coach Jean Prioleau said after the game.
SJSU came out firing against the Cowboys as they drained seven of their first 11 attempts from the three-point line.
The Spartans managed to outshoot the No. 16 ranked three-point shooting team in the country in Wyoming from behind the arc in the first half.
Among the hot shooters in the first half was sophomore guard Omari Moore, who finished the game with 15 points and made three of his five attempts from deep.
“We went through a lot of preparation and I tried to do my best when I had open shots,” Moore said after the game.
Prioleau also took notice of the shooting effort from the 6-foot-6 guard.
“[Moore] has really turned into a great shooter and it showed today,” he said.
Despite their long-range efforts, the Spartans went into the locker room down by 14 points with the Cowboys who led 59-45.
A 6-foot-9 reason for that deficit was in large part due to the Cowboys’ freshman forward Graham Ike, who scored 21 of his season-high 32 points in the first half.
Ike was a powerful force in the paint as he drained eight of his nine first-half attempts.
Wyoming took advantage of the shots they were given, they were sent to the free-throw line 11 times and made nine of them.
The Cowboys were dominant from the field, shooting for a 64.7 percent clip, scoring on 22 of their 34 attempts.
While the Spartans kept the score relatively close at the half, it was all about the Cowboys’ efficient shooting for the remainder of the game.
In the second half, Wyoming scored 52 points on the way to breaking the record for the most regulation points scored in Mountain West Tournament history.
SJSU cooled off tremendously after halftime, shooting only 30.3 percent from the field in the second half and an atrocious 22.2 percent from deep.
Senior forward Ralph Agee was handed a flagrant 2 for unnecessary and excessive contact committed against Ike while he was on the ground.
Senior guard Richard Washington managed to score 18 points in the game, but SJSU desperately needed more from him.
San Jose State looks ahead to next season, while Wyoming will go on to play No. 1 seeded San Diego State on Thursday at noon.
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