CSU season ended by SDSU
Colorado State’s season came to an end Thursday as the Rams men’s basketball team fell to top seed San Diego State, 64-61, in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center. The Rams trailed most of the second half, but had a one-point lead at 59-58 after a 3-pointer by Isaiah Stevens with 1 minutes, 42 seconds remaining.
However, the Aztecs took back the lead 20 seconds later and held on for the win. CSU ended its season at 15-18. The Rams had won four of their previous seven before their seasonending loss.
“I think we’ve been fighting to get continuity all year and whether or not in practice,” CSU head coach Niko Medved said.
“I thought towards the end all season, we started to get better and better. I said today is the day we’re going to put our best out there, and you know what? I don’t have any beef with that. I thought we did. (SDSU) is a terrific team, and we’ve had two of these with this team that have gone right down to the wire, just a couple of plays away. Maybe that changes the trajectory of things.”
San Diego State went ahead on a pair of free throws with 16 seconds left. CSU cut the Aztecs’ lead to 62-61 with 10 seconds to go and San Diego State went ahead by two at 63-61 on a free throw.
Stevens missed a jumper that would have tied it, but Patrick Cartier got the rebound before missing a shot as well. The Aztecs got the rebound and were fouled, making one final free throw to account for the final margin.
“It just rimmed in and out,” Stevens said of his shot. “I thought it was down, but that’s the way the game goes sometimes.”
John Tonje led the Rams with 17 points. Stevens added 16, Cartier 12 and Jalen Lake 10.
The Rams shot 38.6% from the field and were outrebounded 42-32 in the contest.
“Against a team like this, you just take whatever you can get,” Tonje said. “You kinda gotta pick and choose what shots you’re going to take, but once you get an open one, you have to take it.”
CSU jumped out to an 8-0 lead to start the game, but the Aztecs quickly caught up with a 7-0 run to get within one with 15:45 left in the first half.
Tonje was on fire to start the game, scoring 11 of the Rams’ first 15 points in the opening 7:20 of the game. His first 3-pointer of the contest gave CSU a 15-11 lead at the 12:40 mark.
San Diego State took its first lead of the opening period at 24-23 with 3:25 to go and extended its advantage to 27-23 before the Rams got two back on a fast-break dunk by Tonje to make it 2725 at the half.
Tonje led CSU with 13 points in first 20 minutes, but the Rams shot only 36% from the field. CSU shot better in the second half, but it wasn’t enough to pull ahead at the end of the game.
“I’ll say this about group,” Medved said.
“The only people who really know are the guys who were there every day fighting through it. I think to answer your question, when I really reflect on that, I think they did do that. I think they came out and played their best down the stretch and would be hard for me to ask any more.”
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