GAME NOTES: Now tied with San Diego State for first place in the Mountain West Conference, the Wyoming Cowboys focus their attention on visiting Nevada on Saturday.

Earlier this week, the Cowboys had an opportunity to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the crowd in the MWC, but a 56-44 loss on the road to Utah State changed all that. The Pokes now find themselves tied with SDSU at 6-2, and only one game ahead of five other league programs in the hunt entering the weekend.

The loss was the second in the last four outings for a Wyoming program that had lost only twice during the first 17 games of the campaign.

Meanwhile, the Wolf Pack continue to spiral out of control yet again, this time dealing with a five-game slide, after having won four in a row. On Tuesday night, Nevada hosted in-state rival UNLV and came up short in a 67-62 final. Ironically enough, the last win for the Pack came against the Runnin' Rebels in Las Vegas back on Jan. 7 by a final of 64-62.

Wyoming leads the all-time series between the squads by an 11-2 margin, winning the most recent meeting last season by a score of 64-62 in overtime at home. The teams are also set to square off the third week of February at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno.

In a game that featured five ties and six lead changes, Nevada led by three with just under five minutes remaining in regulation before watching UNLV fight back and capture the five-point win. Eric Cooper Jr. and Tyron Criswell scored 16 and 15 points, respectively, the former shooting just 2-of-9 behind the 3-point line, while AJ West handled the action in the paint with 15 points and a game-high 15 rebounds, but he was also charged with four of his team's 13 turnovers.

With a mark of just 2-5 in conference play, the Pack is being outscored by 9.2 ppg primarily due to the fact that they simply can not get off enough quality shot attempts. Nevada is hitting only 36.7 percent from the floor and 24.3 percent behind the 3-point line in those outings and has been reliant on West to try and get them through. West is averaging a double-double with 14.6 points and 12.3 rebounds per contest, grabbing a total of 60 offensive rebounds all but himself, compared to a collective 67 for the rest of his teammates.

Outside of a two-point edge for the Cowboys in the opening moments of the last outing, the meeting with Utah State belonged to the Aggies as the visitors shot only 36.0 percent from the floor and were 1-of-3 at the free-throw line. Riley Grabau accounted for 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting beyond the arc, while Larry Nance Jr. came away with 14 points, marking his ninth straight game in double figures, the 55th such effort of his career.

Nance Jr., who is playing an average of 39.9 minutes per game against the rest of the league, leads the Cowboys in both scoring and rebounding with averages of 19.6 points and 8.1 rebounds per outing. A 55.3 percent shooter from the floor, Nance Jr. has also shown solid touch at the free-throw line where he is 78.8 percent accurate. Josh Adams chips in another 13.9 ppg and Grabau 9.8 ppg, the latter hitting all but one of his 35 chances at the charity stripe.

Arena-Auditorium is a tough place for any visiting team to play, but it will probably be a more hostile environment this weekend as the crowd tries to cheer the Cowboys back into the win column.