Colorado State came out red hot, but went ice-blue cold from beyond the arc, losing 83-71 to UNLV on Tuesday night. Fitting considering the Rams were wearing their Colorado State Pride jerseys, complete with red and blue like the Centennial State’s flag.
CSU did push back thanks to an 11-1 run late in the second half, but it was too little, too late.
“I thought the game was lost before that,” head coach Niko Medved explained after the loss. “Didn’t finish the half the right way…And then clearly the start of the second half, we let it get away from us.
“We were a bit skittish at times,” Medved continued. “Outscored 33-2 on the bench tonight and that was the difference in the game…We’ve got to get more production off the bench.”
The Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV ran away with the game thanks to strong shooting from downtown, going 11-27 (40.7%) compared to 5-17 (29.4%) for CSU.
The Rams led 6-0 to start the game, but the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels went on a 10-4 run to take the 20-10 advantage early.
Colorado State battled back and went on an 8-0 run of their own led by Patrick Cartier’s layup and freethrow make. But UNLV pushed back and took the 39-30 lead at halftime thanks to vastly superior 3-point shooting. Neither team was efficient, but UNLV enjoyed a 12-point advantage from downtown in the first half.
UNLV jumped out to a 17-point lead to begin the second half with a 10-2 run and then ran away with it. The Runnin’ Rebels pushed it to 22 points with 10 minutes to go, but that was too much for CSU to come back from, although the Rams cut it to 8 late.
Isaiah Stevens scored a game-high 18 points and Isaiah Rivera added 17 of his own. Meanwhile UNLV’s EJ Harkless led the Rebels with 17 on the night.
“I don’t think we did that [play well as a team] for long enough stretches or consistently enough, and it ultimately bit us there,” Stevens explained.
The Rams have now lost 9-of-11 games and face a strong Utah State game this weekend.
CSU (10-13) hosts Utah State (17-5) at 6 p.m. MT on Saturday at Moby Arena in Fort Collins.
