Rams make giant statement in win over Saint Mary’s
FORT COLLINS» The Colorado State men’s basketball team welcomed a battle-tested Saint Mary’s to Moby Arena on Saturday.
The Rams, though, made the afternoon festivities look easy, routing the Gaels, 74-58, in front of a near-capacity crowd.
Saint Mary’s traveled to Fort Collins having already defeated Oregon, Notre Dame, and Utah State.
None of that mattered to CSU, which never trailed.
“I wasn’t concerned about our guys being ready to compete,” Rams’ coach Niko Medved said. “But that’s a heck of an outfit over there. They’re used to games like this. So I was expecting it to go down to the last couple of possessions.
“But I thought we ended up being the aggressors the entire game. And man, it would have been hard to ask our guys to play much better than they did today.”
The up-tempo Rams (9-0) possessed clear intentions of speeding up the Gaels (8-2).
And CSU did so, particularly during a pair of key scoring spurts.
“We wanted to pick our spots and continue to attack in transition, and I thought we did that,” Medved said. “We didn’t just let their pace lull us to sleep and get stagnant. We stayed aggressive. And I thought the pace of it was fairly comfortable for us.”
Adam Thistlewood and David Roddy knocked down transition 3-pointers in the first 90 seconds as part of a game-opening 19-8 run.
The Rams held a 35-24 advantage at the half.
Contributing the first six points after the break, Dischon Thomas converted an and-1 layup then dropped an elbow 3-pointer on the next possession.
Suddenly, the Rams found themselves in charge, and they laid the hammer down further from there.
A step-back jumper from Roddy pushed CSU ahead 4526 at the 16:27 mark.
“For us, it was really our defensive intensity,” Roddy said of the key to winning. “Defense leads to offense. We focused on getting three stops in a row and just playing relaxed on offense.”
Early on Isaiah Stevens, who finished with 14 points and four assists, put on a dazzling display of mid-range jumpers and slick footwork to guide CSU.
Red-hot out of the gate, the junior nailed four of his first five 2-point attempts.
Roddy accumulated seven points in a matter of 68 seconds amid the game’s conclusive stretch –– slamming home a transition dunk, producing an old-fashioned 3point play and then hitting a jumper. The sequence gave CSU its largest lead of the day at 71-50.
“I just tried to play under control, not get too frustrated with what went on in the first half,” Roddy said. “I had more space to operate in the second half, and I did my best with that.
CSU wraps up nonconference play with next Saturday’s Mississippi State clash, a Dec. 18 game against Tulsa and Dec. 21’s marquee contest with No. 16 Alabama.