FORT COLLINS, Colo. — After trailing by as much as 16, Colorado State men’s basketball (3-3) valiantly rallied back to force overtime against New Mexico State (3-3) in the opening round of the Cayman Island Classic Monday morning.

Unfortunately for the green and gold, NMSU was able to hang on for the 78-70 win in OT — but CSU’s comeback effort against a perennial NCAA Tournament team was an encouraging sign for a young Rams squad — particularly after how CSU most recently collapsed at home against Arkansas State. While there are no moral victories at this level, and this loss will count against the CSU’s record just as much as the last one, this game should leave the Ram faithful with a much better feeling.

In the loss to the Aggies, CSU never led in regulation and spent the entire game playing catchup after a brutal opening 10 minutes. That said, their effort to get back in the contest and force the game into extra time was legitimately impressive. Down 8 with roughly 2:30 to go, CSU closed the second half on a 10-2 run to tie the game at 60-60 and force an extra five minutes of action.

The most intense moment came with three seconds left — freshman forward David Roddy was fouled while attempting to make a game-tying layup and consequently went to go to the free throw line. The moment would have been too big for a lot of first-year players but with ice in his veins, Roddy confidently stepped up and knocked down a pair of clutch free throws to tie things up.

In the overtime period, the Rams appeared to run out of gas, which was disappointing but understandable considering the effort it took to even get back in the game.

“There were a lot of positives. The young guys played really well and the team showed a lot of fight until the end,” Niko Medved told Brian Roth on the postgame radio interview.

Here are a pair of takeaways from Monday’s rare morning matchup with the Aggies.

Good defense leads to good offense

Following CSU’s loss to Arkansas State last week, Medved really criticized his team for their lack of effort on the defensive end. The second-year head coach of the Rams explained that being young is not an excuse for failing to give it their all on both ends of the floor, and that if they were going to have more success in the future, playing quality defense would be paramount.

The obvious reasoning behind Medved’s thinking is that by limiting how many buckets the opponent scores, his squad will have a better chance to win the game — nobody needs this explained to them but if you score more points than the other team, your team ends up winning.

On a more fundamental level, though, playing consistent defense is the most crucial component of the game for CSU. The Rams are not a team that can blow anyone away with raw athleticism or shoot them out of the gym with 20 3-pointers. They have potential to be fairly dangerous out of their half-court offense, especially when they play inside-out through Nico Carvacho, but their best recipe for success is always going to be being bulldogs on the defensive end. On a basic level, this helps them create turnovers and limit scoring chances for their opponents, but as Medved pointed out last Wednesday, it’s also what allows CSU to get out and play in transition.

“If you’re taking the ball out of the net every time, you can’t get out in transition,” Medved said.

In the loss to the Red Wolves last week, the Rams did not play any defense so they weren’t able to keep attack in transition and create easy scoring opportunities like they did in the win over Loyola Marymount. It was a different story on Monday, though. Much like in their comeback victory over LMU a few weeks back, CSU really turned up the defensive pressure against NMSU and made things interesting.

When CSU was down 16 in the first half, it would have been easy for the Rams to start hanging their heads and relaxing on the defensive end. Instead, CSU fought back into the game and cut the deficit to five at halftime (34-29) by forcing six turnovers and creating high quality looks in transition. That effort carried over into the second half and was a big reason they were ultimately able to force OT.

Slow start plagues CSU again

All things considered, CSU’s effort was admirable — it’s not easy to force a game into over when you never once led in regulation. Following the game, though, Medved made it clear in his postgame interview with Brian Roth that the team’s slow starts are a trend that needs to change.

“We’ve really started slow every game this season and that’s a pattern that worries me,” Medved told Roth.

So far this season, CSU is averaging 31.8 points in the first halves of games, which honestly is higher than I would have guessed. The Rams have generally looked sloppy and struggled to hit jump shots in the early portions of games. But the big issue today was turnovers — CSU had 12 in the first half and it’s primarily the reason NMSU was able to jump out to a double-digit lead.

As Medved told Roth in the postgame interview, the Rams need to start faster offensively and stop putting themselves in these difficult situations.

CSU will play its second game of the tournament on Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. MT. The Rams will face Loyola (Chicago), who fell to South Florida today.