Saturday, March 1st, 4:00 p.m. (et).

FACTS & STATS: Site: Arena Auditorium (15,000) -- Laramie, Wyoming. Television: The Mtn. Home Record: Utah 10-4, Wyoming 7-6. Away Record: Utah 4-6, Wyoming 3-9. Neutral Record: Utah 1-1, Wyoming 1-1. Conference Record: Utah 6-7, Wyoming 4-10. Series Record: Utah leads, 90-72.

GAME NOTES: Suffering through their first three-game slide of 2007-08, the Runnin' Utes of Utah try to stop the bleeding this afternoon as they drop in on the Wyoming Cowboys for a Mountain West Conference bout at Arena Auditorium in Laramie. On Wednesday night, the Utes dropped a 67-61 decision to TCU on the road, pushing the team below .500 in conference play at 6-7, which means the Utes come into the weekend locked in a three-way tie for fifth place in the MWC with Air Force and the Horned Frogs. As for the Cowboys, they sit behind that pack in eighth place with just four league victories in 14 attempts. The squad managed to snap a three-game slide of its own three nights ago with a 77-67 win over Colorado State at Moby Arena. The victory was just the third true road win of the season for the Pokes. With respect to the all-time series between these two schools on the hardwood, Utah leads by a count of 90-72, although it was Wyoming which picked up the 69-64 win over the Utes at the Huntsman Center at the end of January.

Luke Nevill registered 15 points and seven rebounds on Wednesday night against TCU, but with four fouls he played only 21 minutes in the loss. Tyler Kepkay accounted for 10 points for the Utes, the squad squandering a decent advantage late in the first half as they were outscored by the Horned Frogs by a 13-4 margin over the final six and a half minutes of the frame. Nevill has jumped up to the top of the scoring chart for Utah with his 14.3 ppg, just fractions of a point ahead of reserve Johnnie Bryant (14.2 ppg). Nevill also paces the team on the glass with 6.6 rpg, but Bryant has proven to be a deadly perimeter shooter at times for the group with his 45.6 percent accuracy. As a team, the Utes rank second in the conference beyond the arc at 40.5 percent and are first from the floor overall at 48.2 percent heading into the weekend.

Against the only team in the MWC still without a conference victory this season, the Cowboys converted 52.4 percent from the field in the second half and a stellar 26-of-31 at the free-throw line in the frame as well. Joseph Taylor came off the bench to post 21 points and nine rebounds, Tyson Johnson added 17 points and Ryan Dermody 13. Recording a double-double for the Pokes was Brandon Ewing with 10 points and 10 boards, although he shot just 1-of-6 from the field and Brad Jones a mere 2-of-9 on the night. Ewing (16.8 ppg) and Jones (12.1 ppg) have been the lifeblood for the Cowboys this season, which means when they are not on their game the team usually gets knocked off. Ewing is tops on the team with 115 assists and Jones second on the glass with five and a half boards per outing for a team that is second in the MWC in rebounding offense with 36.2 per game.

Even though the Cowboys showed that they can rise above subpar efforts from Ewing and Jones in terms of their scoring, it certainly is not a practice that the home team should try and make work today.

Predicted Outcome

Utah 69, Wyoming 62