Coastal Carolina had an incredible effort from a lot of its players to get the first of the CBI tournament's best-of-three finals series on Monday night. They took down Wyoming in a 91-81 shootout at The HTC Center in Conway, South Carolina. The Chanticleers got off to a fast 15-5 start and saw it get as high as 31-17 with eight minutes remaining in the first half. They eventually cruised to a win after obtaining a nine-point halftime lead; the Cowboys never got closer than within six in the final 20 minutes. Game 2 is set for Wednesday night in Laramie, Wyoming.
Six players score in double figures for Coastal Carolina
The Chanticleers shot a 47.2 percent clip from the field in the victory, established by six players hitting double digits or more. Five players finished their night with either 14 or 15 points. Jaylen Shaw (14.7 ppg, 3.9 apg) was the closest to a double-double with 15 points, eight assists, and just one turnover. Demario Beck (9.9 ppg, 7.9 rpg) was the most efficient hitting 7-of-11 field goal attempts. Colton Ray-St Cyr (9.4 ppg, 6.4 rpg) was the biggest threat from downtown hitting 4-of-5 3-pointers.
Coastal Carolina also thrived by having a dominant 38-29 rebounding advantage. They could have blown the game open, but they hit just 15-of-26 free throw attempts, a figure that will have to improve if they want to win one of the potential two games in Wyoming.
Perimeter shooting didn't help Wyoming
The gameplan for the Cowboys was clearly to shoot at will from downtown. Over half of the team's field goal attempts came from behind the arc, and they drained 13-of-34 3-pointers. While that's a good figure by itself (hitting 38.2 percent), Coastal Carolina was just as efficient with 38.1 percent.
That equaled out the 3-point barrage and their limits on the glass and going +4 in turnovers cost them the game.
Still, there's hope for them in this series. Jason McManamen (11.5 ppg) led the team with 19 points. Leading scorer Justin James (15.9 ppg, 4.9 rpg) was limited to 12 points on 5-of-17 shooting. Usually a 45.5 percent 3-point shooter, he went just 1-for-7 from downtown.
