Down a dark, endless hallway inside Moby Arena, head coach Tim Miles sat in a crouched position against a wall with his head down. His suit jacket on the ground and his tie undone around his neck, Miles ran his hands through his hair and let out a deep sigh.
“We beat ourselves tonight, there’s no question about that,” Miles said. “I didn’t think we showed enough heart in our chests or enough will in our loins to play defense when we were supposed to.”
For the second week in a row, opposing teams have come into Moby Arena and stole the Rams’ hearts.
Last week it was conference-leading Utah who edged the Rams in overtime.
This week it came down to a last-second shot that wasn’t meant to be. Wyoming 82, Colorado State 79.
Two Wyoming free throws put the Cowboys up three points (80-77) with 20.2 seconds left before senior Willis Gardner answered right back with a layup and foul with 13.3 seconds to go. Gardner would miss the free throw (the story of the game Wednesday night) and the Rams were forced to foul Wyoming’s Brandon Ewing. The senior guard knocked down both attempts with 8.1 seconds left to give the Cowboys an 82-79 lead.
Gardner dribbled the ball up the court and took a tough three-pointer at the buzzer that fell short.
“It wasn’t the shot we were looking for, “Miles said. “We were looking to get (Marcus) Walker on the run and (A), we didn’t get a screen from him when we expected to and (B), we didn’t deliver to him when we could have.”
They say that free throws win games, and in the end, it’s what lost the game for the Rams Wednesday night.
The Rams shot a pitiful 59.3% (16-27) from the charity stripe, including missing four of their last five attempts in the final 3:32.
“We had great opportunities that we didn’t take advantage of, such as making free throws,” Miles said.
Gardner, a career 85.3% free throw shooter and the team’s leader, had the final two attempts, missing both. On the night he was 5-of-10 from the line.
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