DENVER — College basketball can be as cruel as it is exciting and Ram Nation got the full treatment on Monday night.
After trailing for much of the contest the Rams were able to battle back and take a 1 point lead over the Cowboys with just over 1 minute left in regulation (69-68) up in Laramie, Wyoming. The Pokes then missed a 3-point attempt, giving the Rams an opportunity to potentially slam the door on their rivals with another bucket. That didn’t happen though. Instead CSU failed to get a shot off, turning the ball back over to Wyoming on a shot clock violation with 9.8 seconds to play.
Graham Ike put Wyoming up 70-69 with a pair of free throws a few moments later, leaving the Rams trailing by 1 with 6 seconds left and zero timeouts remaining. The Rams didn’t flinch, though, and after splitting the press, John Tonje dished the ball to David Roddy who went hard to the rim to draw a foul on Ike. A pair of made free throws would have all but given CSU the win, but Roddy went 1-of-2 at the line and the game went to overtime tied at 70, following a missed full-court heave from Wyoming as time expired.
Roddy got the scoring started in overtime after the Rams secured the tip-off in the extra period. Unfortunately, for the Green & Gold, Wyoming closed out the night by hitting their last five attempts from the floor to take down the Rams 84-78 at Arena Auditorium.
With so many missed opportunities to secure a crucial road win against a contender in the Mountain West, Monday night’s result will definitely leave a pit in the stomachs of the CSU players, especially after a letdown loss to UNLV last Friday. The Rams now find themselves needing a victory over San Diego State on Friday to prevent a three-game losing streak and to keep pace with the top 4 teams in the league — a position that would have seemed crazy just a few weeks ago.
Leading the game in scoring was Hunter Maldonado, who continued a concerning trend of late where the opposing team’s best scorer has a career night against the Rams. Maldonado dropped a career-high 35 points on 12-of-19 shooting, and he was their leading facilitator with seven assists as well. CSU really had no answers for him in the paint, as the crafty guard consistently worked his way down low for high percentage looks. Along with Maldonado, Drake Jeffries scored 16 points on five made threes. Ike posted 16 points and eight boards too, though Roddy and James Moors did a pretty nice job containing him.
Roddy led CSU in scoring with 23 points, pulled down five rebounds and had a pair of assists. Wyoming kept him out of the paint fairly well, but Roddy knocked down four of his five attempts from deep in the loss. Isaiah Stevens had 17 points and paced the Rams with five assists. And coming off of the bench John Tonje had 15 huge points and five rebounds.
While it was a fairly diverse scoring output for CSU — something that’s good to see — moving forward the Rams have to find a way to create a spark offensively sooner in the game. Slow starts continue to put the Rams in a position where they’re playing catch up, and that’s not a good spot to be in against the better teams in the Mountain West.
It’s not even close to time to throw in the towel or for the fans to change their expectations on what this CSU team is capable of accomplishing. But it’s definitely gut check time for an experienced group with understandably lofty goals. A win over SDSU in the Orange Out would go a long way in calming everyone’s nerves.
