Senior Derrious Gilmore looks to pass the ball in the game Tuesday night against Lehigh in the first round of the College Basketball Invitational (CBI). Gilmore had 25 of the team’s 67 points and four assists.
Postseason play has started for one team University of Wyoming basketball and ended for another.
The Cowboys received a bid to play in the sixth annual College Basketball Invitational. The bid marked the third selection for the Cowboys in the short history of the tournament and their second straight postseason-tournament selection.
Among the other teams selected to the CBI, the standouts include the University of Texas, George Mason University and Purdue University.
In the first round of the CBI, the Cowboys were matched up against the Lehigh Mountain Hawks in the first ever meeting between the two. Junior Nathan Sobey made a buzzer-beating three pointer to give the Pokes a 67-66 victory last Tuesday.
Two Cowboys scored over 20 points, with senior Derrious Gilmore scoring 25 points on top of four assists and sophomore Larry Nance Jr. adding 20 points with 7 rebounds.
After the game, Head Coach Larry Shyatt talked about advancing in postseason tournaments.
“I’m an old man, and I’ve had the opportunity to play in I think five championship games in the NCAA or other postseason tournaments,” Shyatt said. “It’s a heck of a feeling to win and advance. I told the kids after the game that by the next time we play on Monday there will be only about 42 teams left playing.”
With the win, the Cowboys have a date with the Western Michigan Broncos in the CBI Quarterfinals.
Where there was joy to be had on the men’s side, the same could not be said for the Cowgirls.
Their run for another championship in the National Invitational Tournament ended in the first round, as they came out on the losing end of a 71-63 game against Northern Colorado last Thursday.
Senior Chuandra Sewell led the Cowgirls in scoring with 17 points. She also added 8 rebounds. Junior Fallon Lewis scored 15 points off the bench, which was a career-high total.
Free throw shooting was a problem all night for the Cowgirls. In the first half, they were 5-11 from the line for a 45.5 percent free throw percentage, and in the second half they were not much better at 61.1 percent on 11-18 attempts.
