Rams pass, shoot, win in best performance of the season
CSU 91, NEW MEXICO 76
FORT COLLINS» Colorado State coach Niko Medved believes in a certain style of offense — give the ball up, get it back and score easy baskets. As he’s said after plenty of games this year, that’s the way basketball should be played.
On Saturday before 3,057 at Moby Arena, the Rams (7-10, 2-2 Mountain West) bought into their coach’s beliefs better than they had all season, leading to a 91-76 victory over New Mexico (8-8, 2-2).
“I thought we did a beautiful job attacking the zone early,” Medved said. “We kept it simple, got it in the middle, made really good decisions when we got it in there, evidenced with 26 assists, nine turnovers. Really proud of the way our guys played.”
In a matter of minutes of the opening tip, the offensive flow was evident as Kendle Moore confidently ran the point and found open teammates from outside. He assisted on three 3-pointers in the opening three minutes to build on the offensive momentum they mustered against Air Force and signify what was to come for the remainder of the game.
It only continued throughout the half as the Rams beat New Mexico’s press and played unself- ishly with the ball in their hands, passing up a decent scoring opportunity to find an open teammate. The easier looks at the bucket led to a 62 percent clip from the field in the opening frame, including 16 assists on 21 field goals.
“We stay together and we’ve got to play together to get these big key wins,” Hyron Edwards said. “New Mexico’s a great team, but we did our job today. It was perfect.”
Defensively, the Rams made a concerted effort to rotate into double-teams and pressure the ball handler often. The consistent pressure energized the entire Rams’ defense as they entered halftime leading 48-38.
“I think that a lot of teams are more selfish on defense than they are on offense,” Medved said. “In order to beat this team, we were going to have to play great team defense.”