It was looking like Coastal Carolina’s second appearance in the Roman College Basketball Invitational postseason tournament was going to be a lot more abrupt than its first.
The Chanticleers, who reached the final series of the 16-team CBI tournament in 2017, trailed Howard by 14 points with 13 minutes to play Wednesday night at the HTC Center.
But the Chants took the lead with an 18-2 run and pulled away from Howard for an 81-72 win.
Coastal (16-16) will travel to West Virginia in the second round Monday. The Mountaineers (15-20) defeated Grand Canyon 77-63 Wednesday.