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The Colorado State men’s basketball team got off to a slow start against Boise State and was unable to overcome it in a 79-76 loss to the visiting Broncos, Jan. 31. With the loss, the Rams fall to 14-9 and 6-4 in the Mountain West, while the Broncos improved to 14-7 and 7-3 in the league.
CSU struggled on both ends of the floor in the early going, trailing by as many as 14 just eight minutes into the first half at 21-7. The Broncos pushed the advantage to as many as 19 at 36-17 with 5:25 remaining in the opening period. From that point, CSU outscored BSU 23-7 to close the half and trail by three at the halftime break, 43-40. The Rams hit eight of their last nine shots to end the half and finished the first 20 minutes 8-of-12 (66.7 percent) from the 3-point arc.
The Rams had a hard time scoring in the second half, hitting just 13-of-34 (38.2 percent) from the floor in the final period. However, the hosts kept the deficit in single digits most of the final 20 minutes through good defense and rebounding. CSU cut it to four with 1:50 left in the game on a triple by redshirt-sophomore J.D. Paige and eventually got it to one at 73-72 on Paige’s driving layup with 31 seconds to go. BSU hit two free throws with 26.7 seconds to take a three-point lead and a turnover on the ensuing possession all but sealed the game for the visitors, as they hit all their free throw attempts in the final segment.
“We got away from what we know,” Paige said postgame, “that’s playing defense really hard, rotation, not getting out on the shooters; that killed us. We were down most of the game so it was hard fighting back. We just got away from what we are.”
CSU finished the game at 41.3 percent (26-of-63) on field goal attempts while Boise State was 47.2 percent (25-of-53). CSU was an impressive 12-of-24 (50.0 percent) from the 3-point line, while the Broncos were a solid 45.0 percent (9-of-20) from outside. Boise State got to the free throw line 26 times, hitting 20 of them, while the Rams were 12-of-15 (80.0 percent). The boards were close as CSU eeked out a 36-34 advantage.
Paige finished with a team-high 20 points and added five assists. Senior forward Emmanuel Omogbo finished with a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds. Senior guard Gian Clavell added 15 points and nine rebounds with sophomore guard Prentiss Nixon chipping in 13 points and four assists. Paris Austin led Boise State with 25 points on the night, while James Reid had 18 on six 3-pointers.
