Thirty-four minutes, 17 points, 10 rebounds, 10 fouls.

Thirty-seven minutes, six points, nine rebounds, 10 fouls.

The Wyoming men's basketball team won its season opener and its exhibition, but the victories were anything but pristine for Cowboy centers Adam Waddell and Mikhail Linskens, who head into tonight's game against Prairie View A&M with the aforementioned numbers to their credit.

"It's been different," Waddell said Tuesday. "I haven't played in a game since last year, so of course it's been different. But I'm starting to get used to it and I think I'll be ready to go (tonight)."

Waddell, who played six games last year before going down with a foot injury and taking a medical redshirt, started both the exhibition and the opener.

He had 12 points in the preseason game with Colorado School of Mines, but air-balled a free throw and fouled out in just 17 minutes.

And he never found a rhythm in Friday's lid-lifter against Cal State Bakersfield, scoring just five points and fouling out again.

"It's frustrating," Waddell said. "I don't really get (some of the calls). Coach just told me to keep playing hard and I might get those calls every once in a while because I play hard and I am playing at such a high rate.

"It's frustrating, but hopefully I'm not fouling out every game."

With Linskens as the only other true center on the active roster, the big men can't be fouling out, and especially not both of them.

"The first two games are like games to get us on track," Linskens said. "We worked out from March til now and haven't really played in any games. We're just trying to play hard and that's why we get some fouls in the game, but we're getting there."

Linskens started the final 15 games of last season, but has come off the bench to spell Waddell so far this year and says he doesn't mind the new role.

But he had just two points in 19 minutes in the exhibition and four points in the opener - a far cry from the career-high 23 he poured in against the Roadrunners last year.

"Well, they're being aggressive," UW coach Heath Schroyer said with a laugh after the 84-58 win over Bakersfield. "I guess they take it to heart - we told them to be aggressive and rebound and be tough, and they're sure as heck doing that."

To their credit, Waddell and Linskens have blocked seven shots and snagged four steals over the two-game span.

They're playing with energy, and Schroyer won't likely ever tell them to step off the gas pedal.

"Like I told Adam when he came out, those guys have to play aggressive and have to go get it," Schroyer said. "But Adam had two fouls that were just silly, one of them coming out on a ball screen and one of them setting a down screen on an out-of-bounds play.

"If we can shore those two things up, we'd be better, but I don't ever want to have those guys not play hard. Especially Adam Waddell, he's a motor guy, and once you take that motor away, that's going to hurt him and hurt the team."

Schroyer hopes Waddell and Linskens will be the ones doing the damage tonight when the Pokes host the Panthers.

Prairie View A&M already has four games under its belt and is coming off its first win, but don't look to start a player taller than 6-foot-7.

"(Tuesday) we'll watch a lot more (film) and prepare more and more with the scouting report," Waddell said. "But if we can't get that inside game going, we'll try the outside. We've got so many weapons."

Sooner or later, the Pokes big men will have to unleash their inside assault.

Contact sports reporter Eric Schmoldt at (307) 266-0578 or eric.schmoldt@trib.com.

COWBOYS TRACKER

TONIGHT: Prairie View A&M at Wyoming, 7 p.m., Arena-Auditorium, Laramie.

RECORDS: Panthers (1-3, 0-0 Southwestern Athletic Conference); Cowboys (1-0, 0-0 Mountain West Conference).

FOLLOW IT: TV: None. Radio: Cowboy Sports Network.

BIG ISSUES: UW centers Adam Waddell and Mikhail Linskens combined for just seven points and both fouled out in the Cowboys' season-opening win over Cal State Bakersfield.

HE SAID IT: "We're just trying to play hard and that's why we get some fouls in the game, but we're getting there." - Linskens.

GIMME FIVE

Wyoming Cowboys

1. PROBABLE STARTERS: Fr. F Afam Muojeke, Sr. F Tyson Johnson, Fr. C Adam Waddell, Sr. G Sean Ogirri, Sr. G Brandon Ewing.

2. AFAM-INATION: Muojeke wasted no time getting himself in the UW record books, scoring 31 points in his Cowboy debut, the 15th-best individual scoring performance in Arena-Auditorium history.

3. FREE THROW WOES: It hasn't really come into play yet, but the Cowboys made just 42 of the 68 free throws they attempted in the exhibition and regular season opener.

4. VITALS: Second-year coach Heath Schroyer is off to a 1-0 start after a 12-18 debut. The Pokes continue to play the waiting game on junior Ryan Dermody (dislocated elbow). All other active players are healthy, including Ogirri, who tweaked his ankle in the season opener.

5. THE QUOTE: "We're working very hard on rebounding. In some games, we missed some rebounds we should've had and we're working hard in practice to get better." -Mikhail Linskens.

Prairie View A&M Panthers

1. PROBABLE STARTERS: Jr. F Darnell Hugee, Jr. F Dorian McDaniel, Sr. G Derek Johnson, Jr. G Christopher Jones, Fr. G Tim Meadows.

2. SWEET 16: Hugee scored 16 points and grabbed 16 rebounds before fouling out in a 90-39 victory over Champion Baptist College on Monday, the Panthers' first win of the season.

3. CONNECTIONS: Hugee came to the Panthers from Blinn Community College in Texas, the same school that produced Wyoming forward Tyson Johnson. Both are New York natives.

4. VITALS: The Panthers are directed by first-year coach Byron Rimm II, formerly an assistant at the school. UW beat Prairie View 85-55 in the schools' only other meeting, which took place in 2002 in Laramie.

5. THE QUOTE: "Especially playing against the littler teams, you kind of have to acclimate yourself to the smaller bodies and playing against those guys, but I feel comfortable." - Adam Waddell.