FORT COLLINS — Coming off an eight-day layoff and its first loss of the season, No. 17 Colorado State got back in the win column in dominating fashion Sunday against CSU-Pueblo despite a slow start in the game’s opening minutes.
But while the scoreboard showed an 86-54 victory for the Rams at Moby Arena, they at times experienced some rust and inconsistency in their first on-court action since losing to Saint Mary’s on Dec. 9. The win improved CSU to 10-1 on the season with the start of Mountain West Conference play approaching.
“We got off to a little bit of a slow start, which maybe can be anticipated after being off, but we found a groove there after a little bit,” CSU head coach Niko Medved said. “It wasn’t a work of art, but we also did some good things. It was great to get a lot of guys some opportunities. I thought everybody that came in was able to find a way to do something. “
As expected, the Rams dominated the Division II Thunderwolves, in every offensive and defensive statistical category.
CSU forced 20 turnovers and got 31 points off of them. The Rams won the rebounding battle, 40-30. The Rams scored 36 points in the paint and 20 off second-chance opportunities.
The Rams also got 18 points off their bench, as 11 players who were active for the game all saw at least a couple of minutes of playing time.
Against a team the Rams were supposed to beat, that playing time and figuring some things out with their lineup were priorities for CSU against the Thunderwolves.
“We really had no choice but to tinker with some lineups,” Medved said. “I just think it’s great for some guys to get some minutes. We just tried to do the simple things that we practice every day at a high level. I think today, a lot of it was just getting up and down again, multiple trips and kind of feeling what that’s like again.”
The game was tied 6-6 at the under-16 media timeout of the first half, but the Rams’ offense immediately picked up after the first break in the action.
CSU went on a 12-2 run to go ahead 18-8 with 12:24 left in the first half. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Patrick Cartier and Nique Clifford started the run.
The Thunderwolves got within nine at 23-14 with 9:26 remaining in the first half, but that would be the last time CSU-Pueblo would trail by fewer than 10 points.
A 3-pointer by Cartier with 8:41 left in the first half gave the Rams a double-digit lead again at 26-14. A 15-0 run late in period gave CSU its largest lead of the first 20 minutes at 38-14.
CSU-Pueblo cut the Rams’ lead down to 17 in the final minute of the half and CSU led 46-26 at halftime. By the time the teams took the court for the second half, the Rams were back in rhythm following their layoff.
“It was long for sure,” Cartier said of the time off for finals. “School kept us all busy, but it was obviously good to have the week to work on some stuff and it was great to be back on the court tonight.”
Isaiah Stevens, who is now just 14 points away from being the all-time leading scorer at CSU, led the Rams with 18. Cartier, Clifford and Tavi Jackson each had 13 and Joel Scott added 11. Stevens added six assists and Clifford just missed a double-double with nine rebounds.
CSU’s largest lead of the second half was 32 points. That came with 1:06 left in the game when a dunk by Kyle Evans pushed the Rams’ advantage to 86-54, which ended up being the final score.
“I wouldn’t say we had a target score or anything,” CSU freshman guard Kyan Evans said. “We just wanted to come out and have a good performance after last week.”
CSU will be back in action Friday when the Rams play Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles. Their final game before conference play, and their next home game, will be Dec. 29 against Adams State at Moby Arena.
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