Hayden Dalton scored 27 points and the Wyoming Cowboys rolled past Utah State 83-65 Wednesday night in Laramie.

An 11-4 run late in the first half gave Wyoming control of the game and a 13-point lead at halftime. Justin James and Alexander Aka Gorski hits three’s to start the spurt. James added a jumper, Hunter Maldonado hit a free throw and Dalton’s dunk with five seconds left in the period punctuated a 46-33 advantage. Utah State never got closer than that margin the rest of the game.

The Cowboys pushed their lead to 18, at 57-39, on a Cody Kelley lay-up just over four minutes into the half. The Aggies pulled within 13 on two different occasions, the last with 11:59 left. UW pushed their lead to 25 with just under seven minutes remaining.

Dalton went 8-13 from the field and knocked down a pair of three’s. He also was 9-10 at the line and added six rebounds. Dalton now has 999 career points with his one missed foul shot at the 5:26 mark being the difference from reaching the 1,000 point plateau.

James added 14 points and six assists. Nyaires Redding contributed eight points, four boards and three assists off the bench.

The players, and even head coach Allen Edwards thought this game was as close to a complete 40 minutes as they’ve played this season.

Wyoming (16-8, 7-4) is now alone in third place in the Mountain West standings. The Pokes shot 50 percent from the field and made eight 3-pointers. They finished with 36 points in the paint and scored 17 points off 14 Aggie turnovers. UW also got 11 second chance points with six offensive rebounds and 25 points were scored off the bench.

Utah State (13-12, 6-6) saw their three-game win streak snapped. They were led by DeAngelo Isby with 16 points. The Aggies shot 40 percent in the game.

The Cowboys head to Las Vegas for their only meeting with UNLV Saturday night at 6 p.m., Mountain Time.

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