CSU Rams end nonconference play with win over Radford ...Saudi Arabia

FORT COLLINS — With Mountain West play beginning this weekend, Tuesday’s night’s nonconference finale against Radford was Colorado State’s last chance to fine-tune some things before the grueling league slate starts.

Despite taking a double-digit lead late in the first half, the Rams had to fend off the Highlanders in the second, eventually coming away with a 78-68 victory at Moby Arena.

CSU improved to 6-5, moving about .500 before a road trip to Nevada this weekend.

“Good game tonight against a tough team,” CSU head coach Niko Medved said. “They’re a team that never goes away. We knew they’d battle until the end. When I look at the keys to the game, I thought we nailed a lot of them.”

CSU led by 10 going into the second half, but four turnovers in the first five minutes of the half and a scoring drought of more than three minutes allowed Radford to cut the Rams’ lead to five points, 44-39, with 14:23 left in the game.

The Rams were able to score four straight points to take a nine-point lead at 48-39 with 12:52 remaining, but the Highlanders cut the CSU lead to three at 54-51 with 7:43 left. Nique Clifford ended a 10-4 Radford run with a 3-pointer to make it 57-51.

Radford never got closer than four the rest of the game. CSU took an 11-point lead at 74-63 on a pair of free throws by Kyan Evans with 34 seconds left. Evans made six free throws in the final 34 seconds to secure the victory.

“I don’t think we got rattled,” Medved said. “We had one little stretch, maybe early in the second half where we probably weren’t guarding the way we needed to. Every time we had a chance to separate, we needed a big shot to go down or whatever, we just couldn’t get it and then they’d come down and make one the other way. But our guys stayed with it and I thought we made some huge plays.”

Keshawn Williams and Rashaan Mbemba led the Rams with 16 points each. Evans added 15 and Jalen Lake had 11.

The Rams shot 55.8% from the field for the game. They outrebounded the Highlanders, 35-28 and had 21 assists to 10 turnovers. The most important thing for CSU in the second half, was pushing back when Radford made a couple of runs.

“I feel like we come out slow in the second half,” Williams said. “We’ve done that on multiple occasions. When we went to the locker room at halftime, even though we were up, coach emphasized, ‘Hey, don’t stop playing.’ So we went out there and we upped the intensity.”

The game was tight for most of the first half. Radford grabbed a five-point lead at 19-14 almost midway through the period. But the Rams answered.

CSU went on an 8-3 run to tie the game at 22 with 6:25 left before halftime. The Rams never trailed again in the first half.

The Highlanders briefly tied the game at 24 before the Rams went on an 11 run to go ahead 35-24 with 1:09 left in the first half. With 27 seconds remaining, a layup by Mbemba gave CSU its largest lead of the game at 37-25.

The Rams took a 37-27 lead into the break.

In the first half, the Rams shot 57.1% from the field to Radford’s 34.6%. The Rams outrebounded the Highlanders, 17-14, in the first 20 minutes. Williams led the Rams with eight points in the first half. Lake had seven.

The Rams will open Mountain West Conference play Saturday at Nevada. Their first home conference game will be Dec. 28 against New Mexico.

“The intensity and everything ramp up to a whole new level,” Medved said. “I think this team is improving. I think we’re starting to figure out who we are and what we need to be. Guys are figuring out roles and we have to find a way to get better and we’ve got to roll our best effort of the year at Reno on Saturday.”

Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( CSU Rams end nonconference play with win over Radford )

Also on site :

• Josh Rock and Daryl Gurney clinch first World Cup crown for Northern Ireland
• AEW Original Marries Longtime Girlfriend
• Armand Duplantis rips off jersey as fans go wild after he breaks stunning record