Colorado State was already the underdog against the Utah State Aggies on Saturday night.
Utah State came into the contest at 18-5, 7-3 MW with an outside shot of winning the Mountain West Conference, against a reeling Rams team who had lost 9-of-11 games. Add on top of that Niko Medved’s team was shorthanded, down to a mere eight players, and CSU had basically no shot of winning.
News: Tough break for @CSUMBasketball against Utah State tomorrow night. The Rams will be without Jalen Lake & Tavi Jackson. The Rams will have 7 scholarship players active against the Aggies.
— Justin Michael (@JustinTMichael) February 4, 2023
Then, the Aggies jumped out to a 9-2 lead early. But the Rams rallied, jumping all over Utah State with a 16-4 run to take a 18-13 lead near the halfway point of the first half. John Tonje led the charge with 7 early points on 4-4 shooting.
As the first half went on, the Rams and Aggies battled closely, with USU taking a narrow 33-32 lead at the break. Tonje’s 13 points led all scorers at halftime. Colorado State was helped by capitalizing on eight Utah State turnovers compared to only three for CSU.
Utah State again started quickly in the second half, powered by an 11-4 run to take a 44-36 lead. Colorado State still wouldn’t quit and the game remained within single digits for most of the second half. But the Aggies started to pull away thanks to Taylor Funk’s phenomenal scoring, going 8-13 from the field with 21 points, and his teammate Steven Ashworth was lights-out from downtown, going 8-17 from beyond the arc for 26 points.
Despite the Rams’ best efforts, Funk, Ashworth and Co. were just too much to overcome with so few players as USU won 88-79. Like their last loss to UNLV on Tuesday night, Colorado State was out-shot from the 3-point line in a huge way. CSU went 3-of-17 (18%) from outside the arc while USU hit 18-of-39 (46%).
Next up for Colorado State (10-14, 2-9 MW) is Air Force (12-12, 3-8 MW) in Colorado Springs on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. MT.
