FORT COLLINS — Colorado State pulled away in the final minute and a half to defeat UNLV 70-62 Friday night at Moby Arena.
The Rams outscored the Rebels 9-1 in the final 1:34 to secure their second Mountain West Conference victory of the season and first league win at home. CSU is now 11-5 overall and 2-3 in conference play.
“I thought that was the first time we won a game where it was a true rock fight,” CSU head coach Ali Farokhmanesh said. “We’ve won shootouts when our offense is good, when both teams are kind flowing. We won those games, but that’s the first rock fight that we’ve won. So, I’m really proud of our guys for the way they fought tonight.”
CSU led 32-29 at the beginning of the second half and was able to hold onto that lead until the Rebels went ahead 40-38 on a 3-pointer by Kimani Hamilton with 16:19 remaining in the game.
The Rams tied the game and took a 45-42 lead on back-to-back 3-pointers by Jase Butler and Brandon Rechsteiner, forcing an animated UNLV coach Josh Pastner to call a timeout with 14:38 left to play.
The Rebels retook the lead on a free throw with 11:55 remaining and led until a pair of free throws by Rashaan Mbemba gave the Rams a 59-58 advantage with 2:57 to play.
A jumper by Jevin Muniz pushed the CSU lead to 61-58, but the Rebels tied the game at 61 on a three-point play with 1:56 on the clock. A layup by Jevin Muniz followed by a three-point play by Jase Butler gave the Rams a 66-61 advantage with 36 seconds remaining and the CSU was able to hang on for the victory.
Rechsteiner led four Rams in double figured with 15 points. Carey Booth added 13, Mbemba 11 and Josh Pascarelli 10. Booth and Mbemba also led the team in rebounds with six apiece.
It was Mbemba’s first action since Nov. 26 against Virginia Tech at the Battle 4 Atlantis.
Colorado State’s Jase Butler directs the Rams’ offense against UNLV on Friday at Moby Arena in Fort Collins. (Nathan Wright/Loveland Reporter-Herald)“Obviously Rashaan was huge,” Farokhmanesh said. “It’s not always in the box score, the numbers, obviously he played well, too, but just his presence, the intensity that he brings, the joy that he plays with, you felt all that in his physicality.”
The game opened with the teams trading runs. CSU scored the first nine points on back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers by Pascarelli, Rechsteiner and Pascarelli again.
UNLV didn’t score until four and a half minutes had already gone off the clock, but when the Rebels finally did break through, they went on an 11-0 run to go ahead 11-9 over the next five minutes.
CSU tied the game at 11 on a basket by Rechsteiner, but the Rebels answered with a 3-pointer to go ahead 14-11 and the Rams never led again until Mbemba made a layup to put CSU ahead 29-27 with 1:30 left before halftime.
From there, CSU outscored UNLV 5-2 to close the first half.
The Rams only shot 34.8% from the field in the first half but were 11-of-15 from the free throw line. CSU outrebounded UNLV 19-14 in the opening period. Booth, Pascarelli and Rechsteiner each had eight points in the first half.
“We started off 9-0, but we’ve just got to sustain that,” Muniz said. “When we go on runs like that, we’ve just got to push that nine-point lead to 15 and just keep building from there because we could build a lead early in the game to help us and then we could just control the game.”
CSU will be back in action Tuesday at Fresno State. The Rams won’t play at home again until Jan. 20 when they host Air Force at Moby Arena.
Colorado State’s Rashaan Mbemba defense against UNLV’s Jacob Bannarbie on Friday at Moby Arena in Fort Collins. (Nathan Wright/Loveland Reporter-Herald)Hence then, the article about csu rams pull away in final minutes to defeat unlv was published today ( ) and is available on GreeleyTribune ( Saudi Arabia ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
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