Wyoming happy with victory

PROVO — Following Wyoming's dramatic 59-58 victory over BYU Saturday night, someone asked Steve McClain how it felt to finally win a game in Provo.

Fair question.

After all, as the 'Pokes' head coach, McClain had posted an 0-5 record against BYU at the Marriott Center, dating back to the 2000 season. As a program, Wyoming hadn't won at the Marriott Center in eight years.

But McClain quickly pointed out he had been part of a victory over the Cougars in Provo before — way back in 1997, when he was an assistant coach at Texas Christian. Of course, that was the year the Cougars posted a 1-25 record.

"That didn't count, I guess," McClain said with a chuckle.

Certainly, Saturday's victory was a huge one for McClain, whose team is the second-hottest team in the Mountain West Conference, right behind nationally ranked Utah. The Cowboys (14-8, 6-3) have now won six of their last seven games.

Wyoming, which was picked to finish last in the conference, has been much-improved the past month.

"We've learned how to win. Sometimes you can't be at your best and you still have to find a way to win," McClain said. "A month ago, we couldn't have won this game. Today, we could because we believed all the time on the bench that we were going to win the game. That's half the battle in basketball — confidence."

Not only was McClain glad to finally break through against BYU, but he was also happy for seniors Jay Straight and Alex Dunn, who each got their first taste of victory at the Marriott Center.

Straight turned in a stellar performance for the Cowboys, scoring 23 points and dishing out five assists in 40 minutes of action.

"I really thought Jay turned it up to another level when we needed him to," McClain said.

Dunn contributed to the Cowboy victory as well, pulling down a game-high 12 rebounds to go along with his four points.

Wyoming visits league-leading Utah Monday night at the Huntsman Center. "This win makes the Utah game an important one," McClain said.

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E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com