A strong defensive effort in the first half by the Wyoming Cowboys and an outstanding first half by redshirt sophomore Hunter Maldonado, who led all scorers with 14 points, had the Cowboys within seven points at 40-33 at halftime. But Maldonado was held to only four second-half points and at the 7:20 mark of the second half he fouled out with 18 points and five rebounds. The score was 74-50 in favor of the Beavers at the time Maldonado went out of the game, and Oregon State went on to an 83-63 road win. The Cowboys are now 1-3 on the season. Oregon State is 3-1 on the year.
The Cowboys held OSU to only 42.3 percent shooting (11 of 26 from the field) in the first half. Wyoming shot 44.0 percent from the field (11 of 25) in the first period. The difference in the first half was six made three pointers by the Beavers to only three by the Cowboys. Both teams were perfect from the free-throw line in the first half. Wyoming was 8 for 8, and Oregon State was 12 of 12. The Pokes forced Oregon State into nine turnovers, while UW committed eight. OSU was led in scoring in the first half by freshman Gianni Hunt, with 11 points. OSU senior Tres Tinkle added 10.
The second half saw Oregon State jump out to an 11-point lead, 49-38, at the 15:35 timeout. The Beavers extended the lead to 16, 58-42, at the 11:49 mark on way to the 20-point victory (83-63).
“The one thing we talked about going into the game was coming out with the right energy and competing and playing hard,” said head coach Allen Edwards. “We did a good job of accomplishing that in the first half. It was a close game, but timely errors hurt us at times. We wanted to stop their Big Three (Tinkle, Ethan Thompson and Kylor Kelley) and force others to beat us, but credit to them -- their role guys did a great job.”
Wyoming had two players in double figures. In addition to Maldonado’s 18 points, senior A.J. Banks, who made his first start of the season, scored 10.
“I thought A.J. Banks was a great player tonight,” said Edwards. “He was aggressive on the offensive and defensive ends, and I thought he did a pretty good job on Tres Tinkle.”
Oregon State had five players in double figures,led by senior Tinkle with 16. Senior Kelley and junior Thompson finished with 13 each. Hunt did not score in the second half, but finished with 11, and junior Zach Reichle added 10. Tinkle led both teams in rebounding with nine.
“They (Oregon State) are a very talented offensive team,” said Edwards. “Their bench kept them in the game. We had some of their players in foul trouble early. The bench was allowing them to stay the course. Oregon State came out with the first punch in the second half.”
For the game, Wyoming shot 41.7 percent from the field (20 of 48), 20.8 percent from three (5 of 24) and 90.0 percent from the free-throw line (18 of 20). Oregon State shot 49.1 percent from the field (27 of 55), 36.4 percent from three (8 of 22) and 80.8 percent from the line (21 of 26). The Beavers out-rebounded the Cowboys by seven -- 34 to 27. Wyoming handed out eight assists to Oregon State’s nine. The Cowboys ended the game with 15 total turnovers to 12 for the Beavers.
It was the final game of a three-game contract between Wyoming and Oregon State. Wyoming opened the three-game series in Corvallis in 2017 with a 75-66 road win on Nov. 13. Last year, the Beavers came away with an 83-64 win also in a game played in Corvallis. The overall series dates back to 1947. OSU now leads the overall series 10-4.
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