Wyoming 109, Tennessee State 56

LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) -- Wyoming coach Steve McClain told his players to forget about final exams for a few hours Wednesday night and play some hard basketball against Tennessee State.

The Cowboys (5-3) didn't disappoint.

Senior guard David Adams scored a career-high 24 points and junior guard Jay Straight added 22 as Wyoming routed the Tigers 109-56. Junior center Alex Dunn also scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds in Wyoming's second straight win.

"They weren't guarding us real hard but we just made some nice plays," McClain said. "For a game that was that big of a margin, most of the time we stayed pretty solid and that's what I like out of the effort."

Adams, who hit 4 of 8 3-pointers and scored 20 points in the 63-55 win over Montana State Saturday, was on fire again against the Tigers.

He hit five 3-pointers in the first half, scoring 18 points. He was a perfect 6-of-6 from beyond the 3-point line and 8-of-9 overall from the field in the game.

The rest of the Cowboys fed off of Adams as well, hitting 21-of-27 from the field in the first half for a 58-26 halftime lead and holding Tennessee State under 60 points for the game.

"I think this team needs games like this every once in a while to give the guys some confidence they can do things," McClain said.

Straight was also perfect in the first half, hitting on all four of his field goal attempts, including two 3-pointers, for 12 first- half points. Straight was 8-of-9 from the field, including all 3 3-pointers.

Wyoming hit on 72 percent of its shots in the game (39-of-54), including 9-of-12 3-pointers.

Dunn said it was a little tough for the team to keep its focus heading into the second half, but was motivated by McClain's challenge to hold the Tigers to less than 60 points.

"We just came out and played hard and jumped on them quick," he said.

Wyoming also held a commanding 48-25 rebounding edge, with senior Mory Correa grabbing nine rebounds. Correa also had five blocked shots.

The Cowboys, which saw a 30-point first-half lead dwindle in the 16-point win over Washington Dec. 6, didn't have that problem against the Tigers. The closest Tennessee State came in the second half was 29 points, and that was early.

The loss was the seventh straight for Tennessee State (1-7), which won just two games last season.

Senior guard Brandon Lockridge came off the bench to lead the Tigers with 20 points. Junior Roshaun Bowens added 14 for the Tigers, who will be at Colorado on Friday. Tennessee State shot just 29 percent from the field (22-of-76).

Wyoming hosts Winthrop Saturday at 4 p.m. -- the first of several tough games on the Cowboys' schedule.

"Confidence is an amazing thing," McClain said. "We know Saturday's going to be a while different game, but at least we can go into practice and guys will understand things a little better."