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Rams Nearly Blow An 18 Point Lead With Poor Free Throw Shooting
Colorado State Moves To 3-0 At Home In Conference Play
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Colorado State Survives Late Fresno State Run To Win 74-65
When it comes to Mountain West Conference play, Colorado State truly does have a ‘home court advantage’ at Moby Arena. They are a completely different team in Ft. Collins and that showed again on Saturday afternoon. The Rams are now 3-0 at home in conference play after holding on against Fresno State 74-65.
For a brief moment at the start of the game, it felt like deja vu for Colorado State fans. Fresno State, who won the match-up earlier this season between the two schools, got out to a 6-0 start and then Colorado State figured out that they were in a basketball game and started raining in three-pointers during a 12-0 run and the Rams never looked back. They hustled for loose balls, broke down the Bulldogs press and put together enough free throws at the end to hold off one of the better teams in the Mountain West.
Colorado State was far from perfect in their victory. They broke down toward the end of the first half after Colorado State senior guard J.D. Paige was called for a controversial foul that led to head coach Niko Medved getting a technical foul. Fresno State wasn’t able to capitalize and the Rams went into the half with a 33-30 lead.
Colorado State came storming out of the locker room, going on a 12-0 run and pushing the lead to as much as 18 in the second half. Fresno State however would not go quietly into the northern Colorado sunset. The Bulldogs chipped away and were able to cut the deficit to five with under three minutes to go. Fresno State was aided by Colorado State’s inability to make free throws (they went 18-32 from the charity stripe but were 5-17 at one point in the second half) and a nearly five minute drought from the field late in the game. But Paige, junior guard Hyron Edwards and freshman guard Kendle Moore were able to make enough shots from the line to hold off the Bulldogs.
The Rams had four players in double figures led by Paige with 17 points and Moore with 16 points. Moore was everywhere in the first half where he had 12 of his 16 points and six of his seven rebounds. Fresno State was led by senior guard Deshon Taylor with 24 points and junior forward Nate Grimes who dropped in 16 points to go along with his 12 rebounds.
Colorado State will not have much time to work on it’s free throws as they welcome Boise State to Moby Arena on Tuesday night. Tip off is scheduled for 7pm and can be seen on AT&T SportsNet.