Utah Valley Opens CBI with First Round Win

OREM, Utah – Utah Valley began the 11th annual College Basketball Invitational with an 87-65 home victory over Eastern Washington.

The Wolverines shot the lights out, connecting on 29-of-52 (.558) of their shots from the field, including 7-of-16 (.438) from three, as well as 21-of-26 (.846) from the free throw stripe. On defense, Utah Valley limited the Eags to 25-of-70 (.357) from the field and 5-of-27 (.185) from three.

Akolda Manyang (pictured) led the Wolverines with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Kenneth Ogbe tallied 17 points, Jerrelle DeBerry had 16 points, and Zach Nelson added 10 points.

Eastern Washington was led by Bogdan Bliznyuk, who tallied 27 points to end his collegiate career as the Big Sky Conference’s all-time leading scorer with 2,169 career points.

The First Round of the CBI continues on Wednesday with seven games: Miami (Ohio) at Campbell, Jacksonville State at Canisius, North Texas at South Dakota, UTRGV at New Orleans, Colgate at San Francisco, Mercer at Grand Canyon, and Central Arkansas at Seattle U.

The eight First Round winners will advance to the Quarterfinals, which will take place on Monday, March 19.