FORT COLLINS — With Fort Collins’ first significant snowfall of the season covering the Colorado State campus and temperatures in the teens, the CSU men’s basketball team was anything but cold Tuesday night at Moby Arena.
Behind a balanced offensive attack that shot 51% from the field and tallied a season-high in points, CSU won its second straight Mountain West Conference game with a 91-64 victory over Fresno State on Tuesday at Moby Arena.
Jaylen Crocker-Johnson led the Rams’ starters with 20 points while Keshawn Williams and Kyle Jorgensen combined for 28 off the bench as CSU improved to 9-6 overall and 3-1 in the Mountain West.
The Rams were just as good defensively, holding the Bulldogs to 26 first-half points, including a 10-minute stretch where they went without a field goal and missed 13 consecutive shots from the field.
“Not a lot to complain about tonight,” CSU head coach Niko Medved said. “Really good performance. I think it starts on the defensive end with these guys. I think that’s kind of what set the tone for this team. It’s led to some frustration in our opponents that way, making it difficult on them.”
Even though Fresno State jumped out to an early 6-3 lead, the Rams used a 15-0 run to go ahead 18-6 and never relinquished the lead.
The Bulldogs got a pair of free throws to end CSU’s run, but the Rams scored the next six points to go ahead 24-8 with 8:03 remaining in the first half.
When Fresno stopped that run on a jumper by Alex Crawford with 7:49 left before halftime, it was the Bulldogs’ first field goal since the 17:48 mark of the first half, a span of 10 minutes that featured 13 missed shots from the field for Fresno.
Colorado State’s Jalen Lake looks for an open teammate against Fresno State on Tuesday at Moby Arena in Fort Collins. (Nathan Wright/Loveland Reporter-Herald)CSU took its largest lead of the first half at 40-14 with 4:33 left before halftime. Fresno was able to whittle its deficit down to 23 at the break as the Rams took a 49-26 lead into the locker room.
The Rams held the Bulldogs to just 28% shooting in the first half on seven-of-25 shooting. CSU forced seven Fresno State turnovers while outrebounding the Bulldogs 22-16 in the first 20 minutes.
“I think we’re best when we’re aggressive,” sophomore guard Kyan Evans said. “I think that’s the mindset we want to come into every game with and just try and attack every team. I think we’re better when we’re aggressive, so that’s the plan.”
Fresno State made a brief run at the beginning of the second half, cutting the CSU lead to 19 points at 53-34 with 15:23 left in the game, but the Rams answered with 14-3 run to take a 67-36 advantage with 11:50 left in the game.
The Rams took their largest lead of the game at 85-50 with 4:13 left in the contest on a free throw by Evans. Evans finished the game with 10 points, seven assists and four rebounds.
In all, CSU had five players score in double figures led by Crocker-Johnson’s 20. Williams added 18, Nique Clifford 14 and Evans and Jorgensen 10 each.
The Rams also had 28 assists on 29 made field goals.
“I love that,” Medved said. “If you play good defense, a lot of assists and a lot of guys are scoring and everyone’s sharing, I just think it’s fun to play that way. I think it’s great.”
CSU will be back home at Moby Arena on Saturday as they look to win their third conference game in a row against UNLV. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.
Colorado State’s Nique Clifford brings the ball up the court against Fresno State on Tuesday at Moby Arena in Fort Collins. (Nathan Wright/Loveland Reporter-Herald) Read More Details
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