Cowboys stand tall

Victoria Sun

Friday, March 9, 2001 | 11:04 a.m.

MWC men's tournament

Thursday's first-round scores

BYU 69, Air Force 54 Wyoming 73, San Diego State 58

New Mexico 76, Colorado State 65

Utah, bye

Today's semifinals

6 p.m. -- No. 2 BYU vs. No. 3 Wyoming (KFBT, Ch. 6)

9 p.m. -- No. 1 Utah vs. No. 4 New Mexico (ESPN, Ch. 19)

Saturday

7 p.m. -- Championship (ESPN, Ch. 19)

MWC women's tournament

Wednesday's first-round scores

New Mexico 55, San Diego State 49

Colorado St. 70, Wyoming 55

BYU 62, UNLV 54

Utah 53, Air Force 50

Today's semifinals

Noon -- No. 3 New Mexico (18-11) vs. No. 2 Colorado St (22-6) (Metro, Ch. 48)

2:30 p.m. -- No. 4 BYU (17-11) vs. No. 1 Utah (26-2) (Metro, Ch. 48)

Saturday

9:30 p.m. -- Championship game (ESPN 2, Ch. 31)

The "Three Bs" -- for bigs -- were at it again Thursday night, blocking shots and harassing any San Diego State player who dared to play in the paint.

But they might as well call themselves the "Four B's" because it's tough not to include 6-8 Josh Davis in the bunch.

Wyoming big men Uche Nsonwu-Amadi, Ronell Mingo and Ugo Udezue were indeed dominant against an overmatched San Diego State team in the first round of the Mountain West men's basketball tournament.

The Cowboys racked up a season high 10 blocks -- five by Davis -- en route to a 73-58 victory before a Cowboy dominated crowd at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Davis led Wyoming (20-8) with 20 points and 14 rebounds (12 defensive) while the 6-foot-10 Nsonwu-Amadi contributed 15 points and nine rebounds.

"Josh Davis is a great shot blocker," San Diego State coach Steve Fisher said. "He blocks shots coming from the weak side. It creates problems for people. When you think you're going to score a basket, he swats it out of bounds.

"They're good. They're strong. They're aggressive. They're athletic. And they're too much for us with that power and strength."

Wyoming will play BYU, a 69-54 winner over Air Force, in the semifinals tonight at 6 p.m.

Mingo, inserted into the starting lineup just two weeks ago by coach Steve McClain, made the most of his 18 minutes. Though he struggled offensively, making 4-of-10 shots for nine points, he had five defensive rebounds and four blocks.

The 6-9 Mingo helped the Cowboys pull away early in the second half with some smart plays.

After the Aztecs' Randy Holcomb drilled a 3-pointer to pull SDSU within two at 38-36, Mingo tipped in a missed shot, then fought for the rebound on the other end. On the same possession, he made a 12-footer to put Wyoming up 42-36 which sparked an 11-2 run.

"I felt that we needed to come out and play hard the second half," Mingo said. "I don't care if it's San Diego State or BYU.

"That's what I do. I love blocking shots and getting rebounds. My offense follows my defense, that's why that's my first priority."

Defending hasn't been a problem for Davis all season.

He led the conference in rebounding with 9.3 a game and was third in blocked shots with 1.78 a game.

Though BYU's Mekeli Wesley was voted the Mountain West player of the year by the coaches, Davis got the nod from ESPN.com.

"When I see something in the air, I just go after it," Davis said of his leaping ability.

It doesn't hurt that his mom, Katrina, played volleyball at San Jose State, and his dad, William, was a wrestler.

Some of the Cowboys used a 106-102 loss to UNLV on the same floor in their final regular season game last Saturday as motivation against the Aztecs.

Had Wyoming won, it would have gained sole possession of first place for the regular season conference title. Instead, the Cowboys wound up in a 3-way tie with BYU and Utah instead and was relegated to the No. 3 seed on tie breakers.

"When we lost that game, most of us didn't enjoy that game," Nsonwu-Amadi said. "I think that game really much motivated us to come out and play this game and every game after that."

The Cowboys will need another big game from the Three B's and Davis against the Cougars tonight if they plan to advance to the conference tournament finals. The teams split their regular-season series.

The winner of the Mountain West tournament will receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament that starts next week.