LAS VEGAS, Nev. – No. 6 Colorado State dug an early hole that it couldn’t find its way out of and fell to No. 11 Wyoming, 80-74, in the first round of the 2020 Air Force Reserve Mountain West Championship in Las Vegas Wednesday night. The Rams slipped to 20-12 on the season, while the Cowboys improved to 8-23 and advanced to a quarterfinal matchup with No. 3 Nevada Thursday night.
Wyoming opened the game strong from distance, hitting on five of its first six three-point attempts to build a 16-point lead at 26-10 with 12:43 in the opening half. CSU battled back to cut it to two, but the Cowboys pushed it back out to nine and eventually went into the break with a 44-39 lead.
Wyoming started the final 20 minutes on a 9-1 run to go back up 53-40 with just over 17 minutes to play. The Rams cut it back to two at 56-54 on a Hyron Edwards 3 with 8:40 to go but couldn’t find a way to take the lead the rest of the way, going on a 4:03 scoring drought in the decisive final segment.