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Colorado State’s men’s basketball team pulled away in the second half for a 93-69 win over visiting Arkansas-Fort Smith, Dec. 6. With the victory, the Rams improved to 7-2, including 6-1 at Moby Arena this season.
The Rams grabbed the lead early in the first half, but the Lions hung in through the opening 20 minutes, as CSU led just 40-34 at the halftime intermission. The two teams went back and forth early in the second half before the Rams used a 15-1 run over five minutes to take a commanding 59-38 lead with just over 12 minutes to play. The Colorado State lead never fell under 14 points in those closing 12 minutes.
“I challenged them at halftime,” head coach Larry Eustachy said. “I did not go out [on the court] until almost the start of the second half on purpose. I thought they responded for sure, and tonight, we grew up a little bit.”
Colorado State was outstanding offensively on the night, shooting 62.7 percent (32-of-51) from the field, including 68.0 percent (17-of-25) in the second half. Their 32 made-field goals marked a season high, and the 17 assists fell just one short of their season high which came against Maryland Eastern Shore. UAFS shot 50.0 percent (22-of-44) for the contest, but lost the board battle to the host Rams, 27-22. CSU was also good at the charity stripe, going 24-of-33 (72.7 percent) in the game.
For the first time this season, the Rams had five players in double figures, led by junior Che Bob’s season-high 21 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field in his first CSU start. Redshirt-freshman Anthony Bonner also had a season-high with 17 points, including three 3-pointers.
“I credit my teammates for finding me,” Bonner said postgame. “Yesterday in practice, we worked a lot on movement, looking for each other and ball reversals. I think our team chemistry played a big part in it.”
Junior Devocio Butler chipped in 13 points, while senior Emmanuel Omogbo and redshirt-sophomore J.D. Paige added 11 and 10, respectively. Arkansas-Fort Smith was led by Ognjen Vasiljevic with 14 points.