FORT COLLINS — The first win of the Mountain West schedule for the Colorado State men’s basketball team didn’t come easy.
Despite taking a 17-point lead in the second half, the Rams had to hold off a late run by New Mexico, but eventually came away with a 76-68 victory Tuesday night at Moby Arena.
With the win, the No. 13 Rams improved to 13-1 overall and 1-0 in conference play.
“We know it is a new season,” CSU guard Isaiah Stevens said. “We have a lot of guys that it might be their first time stepping into this. We understand that the Mountain West is extremely deep this year. So being able to protect Moby, which is what we say all the time, especially to start conference play is huge.”
Leading by three at halftime, the Rams wasted little time extending their lead in the second half.
A 3-pointer by Patrick Cartier pushed the CSU lead to six at 36-30, but the Lobos were able to whittle the Rams’ lead to three at 41-38 with 15:56 left in the game and then again at 43-40 with 15:34 to go.
Then the Rams began to pull away, going on a 10-0 run to take a 53-40 lead, their largest of the game to that point, at 13 points with 11:05 remaining.
New Mexico cut the CSU advantage down to eight at 53-45, but the Rams answered with a 9-0 run to go ahead 62-45 with 7:31 to play. The 17-point lead would be their largest of the game.
The Lobos made a run in the closing minutes, pulling within 68-61 with 1:05 remaining, but the Rams made their free throws down the stretch to secure the victory.
Cartier led the Rams with 21 points. Stevens added 18, including his 2,000th point at CSU. Nique Clifford had 12 and Joel Scott 10. Clifford had a double-double with 10 rebounds while Stevens just missed one with eight assists.
“I thought we did a great job of showing our poise throughout the game,” CSU head coach Niko Medved said. “We didn’t allow any big runs. We stayed with it. We weren’t perfect. You’re never going to be, but I thought our guys did a lot of really good things tonight.”
New Mexico took the early lead in the game, jumping out to a seven-point advantage, the Lobos’ largest of the first half at 12-5 with 15:59 left in the first half.
A 3-pointer by Jalen Lake cut the Lobos’ lead to 12-8 and started a 12-5 run for the Rams that eventually led to a tied game at 17 on a 3-pointer by Cartier with 9:47 remaining in the opening period.
Two minutes later, a jumper by Stevens gave CSU its first lead of the game with 7:52 on the clock.
The Rams never trailed again in the first half, although the game was tied at 23 with 5:20 left before halftime. Clifford broke that that tie with a pair of free throws and CSU took its biggest lead of the first half at 31-26 with 1:41 left.
CSU led by five again at 33-28 on a layup by Cartier with 27 second left, but the Lobos got a basket with three seconds to go to cut the Rams’ lead to 33-30 at halftime.
Cartier led the Rams with 12 points at halftime. Stevens had eight.
Neither team shot well in the first half. CSU shot 44% from the field while New Mexico shot 44.8%. A big reason the Rams were able to maintain their lead in the closing minutes of the first half was due to the Lobos’ dismal free-throw shooting. New Mexico made only one of its eight first-half free-throw attempts.
“I thought early on, just my general feel, a little choppy on both sides as the half went on,” Medved said. “Maybe that was just part of the intensity that both teams were playing at. I thought out guys did a great job coming out of halftime and putting their foot on the gas a little bit.”
CSU will be back in action Saturday when they play at Utah State.
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