Wyoming Captures CBI Presented by Five Four Championship

Wyoming Captures CBI Presented by Five Four Championship

Marchl 31, 2017

LARAMIE, Wyo. – For the second game in a row, Wyoming never trailed in capturing an 83-59 win over Coastal Carolina to earn the championship of the 2017 CBI presented by Five Four.

The Cowboys are the second consecutive Mountain West Conference team to earn the CBI title, following Nevada, who also won the CBI in three games a year ago. Ironically, both won with first-year head coaches as Allen Edwards joins Eric Musselman in that exclusive club. It also marks Wyoming’s first national postseason title since winning the 1943 NCAA Tournament.

Wyoming broke the game open with a 15-0 run over a 6:38 span to take a 35-19 first half lead, highlighted by three 3-pointers by Hayden Dalton. Wyoming outscored Coastal 22-4 over the final 10:53 of the first half, limiting the Chanticleers to two free throws and one field goal, to enter halftime with a 42-23 lead.

After Coastal got the lead down to 10, 44-34, with 15:39 to play, the Cowboys went on a 9-3 run to get it back up by 16 points, 53-37, and never looked back.

DominiqueMatthews_02Justin James (pictured right) led Wyoming with 17 points, five rebounds, and four assists in earning CBI Most Valuable Player honors. Dalton ended the game with 19 points and a game-best 11 boards. Louis Adams had nine points and Alexander Aka Gorski added eight points.

Demario Beck paced the Chants with 17 points and seven rebounds, while Jaylen Shaw netted 10 points.

Wyoming shot 29-of-68 (43%) from the field, including 13-of-37 (35%) from three. Defensively, the Pokes held Coastal to 21-of-62 (34%) field goal shooting and 4-of-21 (19%) 3-point shooting. Over the last two games, Coastal was just 9-of-47 (19%) from the arc.

A crowd of 6,321 fans witnessed the game.

In joining Nevada as CBI champions, Wyoming joins the Wolfpack as the only teams in Mountain West Conference history to win national basketball championships.

(photos by: Troy Babbitt)

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